Design Notes

January 31, 2019

AQWorlds Patch Notes

Check the list of bug fixes to see what the team has addressed

Reens, Cemaros and the AQW Bug Hunter team are busy squashing the bugs you submit each week to the Bug Tracker at www.Artix.com/bugs.

Please do not send non-release bugs on Twitter. They will get lost. Make sure you send bug report forms!

Check back weekly to see if the bug you reported has been addressed. Please remember that not all bugs are "easy fixes" so some reported and confirmed bugs from each week may not be on the fixed list as they will require more time or a different person to fix them.

If you would like to know how the reports go from you to fixed, check this page:
http://www.aq.com/lore/guides/BugReportFAQ

Bug Fixes:

The Unholy of Vokun boot tips stay on now.
Galactic Destroyer Cape no longer changes size.
Sparring Suit female remade on new template to fix CC and connection issues.
Empty Inn NPC in /thespan empty back button removed.
Warlic’s “Journey to the Center of Lore” button in /battleontown fixed.
Vordred monsters in /vordred have turned in their Santa hats.
Legendary Hero BOL badge stays a badge now instead of thinking about attacking you in your sleep.

Art Fixes:

Demonhuntress / Demonhunter Horns small non-CC skin bit fixed.
Archer Drow Helm small non-CC bit fixed.
Seraphic Commander female part of chest and leg non-CC bit fixed.
Icestorm Warlord red outline parts fixed.
Wretched Stalker's Locks hair gap fixed.
Void Warlock Overfiend Blade Pet and Elite Void Sword Pet alignment is now vertical.
Fiendish Caladbolg grip fixed.
Tempest Armor female elbow realigned.
Helms from the Void Defender LTS shop with hair gaps fixed.

Not Fixed & Why:

aKidz The Kid moving to the bottom is due to the lower case “a” at the front.
Grandmaster Helm previews - the layer “backhair” does not appear in previews, only when equipped.

Artist Choice:

Glacial Troll Armor outlines.
Doom Lord Valtrith Cape size.

Tags: Patch Notes, Cemaros,

January 30, 2019

Void ChronoKnight Upgrade Pack Changes

Upgrade to unlock the Copper Void ChronoKnight gear sets!

Starting this Friday, February 1st, at 6 PM EST, the Void ChronoKnight upgrade bonus sets will change to match our new "Choose your Bonus" rewards set-up. Buy any AC or membership package worth $10 USD or more to unlock one of our upgrade bonus packs, then log in to your Account Manager and choose the Copper Void ChronoKnight set.

Pack Details

Choose the Copper Void ChronoKnight pack in your Account Manager to unlock:

Copper Void ChronoKnight armor
5 helms
2 capes
10 weapons
3 pets
5 Rep/XP/Gold/Class Points boosts added straight to your inventory
and a character page badge

Once you've chosen the Copper Void ChronoKnight set on the Account Manager page, log in and find the set's shop in the Other Achievements tab in your Book of Lore.

Chromium Void ChronoKnight Set Add-On

Once you unlock the Copper Void ChronoKnight set, the color customizable Chromium Void Knight set can be permanently unlocked when you buy the Chromium Canister for 6,000 ACs.

Buy any membership or AdventureCoin pack worth $10 USD or more.
Choose the Copper Void ChronoKnight upgrade bonus in your Account Manager.
Log in at www.AQ.com and find your Copper Void ChronoKnight badge shop.
Buy the Chromium Canister item.
/join battleontown and head to Vinara's Curio Shop. Click on the Chromium VoidKnight to unlock your gear.

The Chromium Void ChronoKnight set includes:

Chromium Void ChronoKnight armor (Chromium armor is color-customizable)
5 helms
4 capes
10 weapons
3 pets

*During January 2019, the Chromium Void Knight set was available for players who purchased a 12,000 AC pack or 12 month membership. The Chromium Canister is priced to keep the total cost of the Chromium Void Knight set equivalent under our new system. This set will not be purchasable as a separate upgrade bonus.

This Friday, our Upgrade Bonuses Level Up... Choose your Reward!

In the past, our upgrade bonus sets would only be available for a single month, and then would become permanently rare. We made some really incredible gear... that no one can get now. I've talked with many of you individually to brainstorm and get feedback, and starting this month, our upgrade bonuses will become permanently available. We will continue to add new upgrade bonuses regularly, but the big difference is... now you can choose which upgrade bonus set you want!

Starting this Friday, when you buy any AC or membership pack worth $10 USD or more, you'll be able to choose one of the following bonus sets:

Akiban Defender
Copper Void ChronoKnight
Golden Northlands Royalty

Important Details

All future upgrade bonus packs will be added under this system.
ALL of the upgrade bonus gear for a set will be available when you buy an AC or membership pack worth $10 USD.
We will no longer be doing Tier 1 and Tier 2 sets.
Each time you upgrade, you'll be able to choose another bonus set. If you've already unlocked all the available sets, once a new one releases, you'll be able to choose it immediately.

If you buy a 12,000 AC or 12 month membership pack, in addition to choosing an upgrade bonus set, you'll also get 7x Game Boosts, a character page badge, plus 10 Wheel of Doom Fortune Tickets (worth 2,000 ACs).

Upgrade Pack Changes: Why Now?

As I talked with many of your fellow AQW players about these changes, one question repeated itself over and over: "why do we need to do this? Why now?"

Development for AQW:Mobile is going to go into overdrive. With AQW:Mobile, we will not be able to do nearly as many rare items (this is in large part for game performance reasons, like managing asset loading, just like in AQ3D). It is also a pretty big blow to the artists and future players to lose access to entire sets of gear every month.

We want to avoid that. We want to keep all the incredible art the team makes available for everyone, no matter when they start playing. And as we move into new platforms (mobile devices, Steam, ... maybe consoles?!) we want to make sure that art is available for the new heroes who will join you.

ArchFiend OverLord Leaves this Friday!

January is a month of new beginnings and birthdays in AQWorlds! To help ALL our heroes celebrate the new year and Nulgath's birthday, this month's seasonal set features the ArchFiend OverLord. This is your last chance to get the January Seasonal Set this year... it will not be available again until 2020.

Starting this Friday at 12:01 AM EST (that's server time), unlock the Obsidian Samurai armor and all its accessories with our February Seasonal Set!

Tags: Alina,

January 25, 2019

New Gear in Nulgath's Birthday Shop

The /party continues this weekend!

Many of the community and team artists whose work is featured on AQWorlds started their adventures loving Nulgath's art. This year, for his birthday, we're bringing you two new sets from artists inspired by the dark, destructive powers of Lore's greatest ArchFiend!

This week, log in and head to Nulgath's Birthday shop in your game menu to find:

Sai Walker's Primal Void set
Bido's Void Walker set

Nulgath's birthday shop will be available until February 8th... once the shop leaves, it won't return until January 2020!

Tags: Alina,

January 25, 2019

This Weekend: Stryche's Saga, Part 1

Answer the Call of Vorland, the Spirit Bear

Stryche, Warrior and the owner of Battleon's HeroMart Store, has been your friend and fellow defender of Lore for years. This weekend, explore his past and join in the fight to defend his home from Marchosias, a rival warrior who'll stop at nothing to take control of the Hunter's Moon Clan.

Confront his greatest rival for leadership of the clan
Battle Werebears and slavish acolytes
Fight monsters to get all-new reward gear

Tags: Alina,

January 23, 2019

ArchFiend Overlord Leaves Next Week

Unlock 20+ item in our seasonal set pack now!

January is a month of new beginnings and birthdays in AQWorlds! To help ALL our heroes celebrate the new year and Nulgath's birthday, this month's seasonal set features the ArchFiend OverLord.

January Set: ArchFiend OverLord

Starting this Tuesday at 12:01 AM EST (that's server time), unlock the ArchFiend OverLord armor and all its accessories!

There are two ways to get the gear:

1) Total package: Buy the entire set directly through the website for $9.99 USD

2) Individually: Buy each of the individual pieces from Garek the Traveling Gear Merchant in Battleon.

The total cost to buy all of the gear individually is 5,400 ACs, so getting all the gear from the Northern Wanderers pack is a pretty sweet deal (you save 3,400 ACs).

The set includes:

ArchFiend OverLord Armor
5 helms
7 capes
7 weapons
character page badge

Seasonal Set Details

Each month, we'll feature a new set, available only during that month every year.

Seasonal Sets
September: Celestial Naval Commander
October: ChronoStriker
November: Harvest Hunters
December: Northern Wanderer
January: ArchFiend OverLord
February - August: ??? - come back to see what we'll bring!

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this the same as the monthly upgrade bonus?

Monthly upgrade bonus gear is an extra reward for buying AdventureCoin or Membership packages. Seasonal set packs are bought separately. Just like the Flame Dragon Warrior pack, you can buy the entire set directly, for one price, on our site. You can ALSO buy the individual pieces in-game.

This set will return EVERY January, so if you can't get it now, you'll have another chance in 2019, or 2020, or 2021, etc.

If this isn't the monthly upgrade bonus, what IS the bonus in January?

The next upgrade bonus will be available starting January 4th, and are the golden and platinum Void ChronoKnight armors.

What if I just want ONE of the items?

You're in luck! Talk to Garek in Battleon. He'll be selling the individual pieces of the set through January 31st.

Where do I get my gear if I buy the full set through the website?

You'll find it in your Book of Lore.

Tags: Alina,

January 22, 2019

AQWorlds Patch Notes

Check the list of bug fixes to see what the team has addressed

Reens, Cemaros and the AQW Bug Hunter team are busy squashing the bugs you submit each week to the Bug Tracker at www.Artix.com/bugs.

Please do not send non-release bugs on Twitter. They will get lost. Make sure you send bug report forms!

If you would like to know how the reports go from you to fixed, check this page:
http://www.aq.com/lore/guides/BugReportFAQ

HAPPY NEW YEAR! We're back! With a big list today!

Bug Fixes:

Formal Skull Cane animation was not supposed to be on trigger. It has now been changed.
Festive DoomKnight and Festive DoomKnight Cape descriptions updated.
Purple Doom Lord Safiria Morph added to Vesper's shop.
Chromium Void Cape added to it's proper shops now.
Member Class Shop readded to game menu.
Holiday ArchPaladin female version has been added.
Falcon Commander Battle Pet has been informed he actually is a battle pet. He agrees.

Art Fixes:

Frostval Barbarian Poleaxe has all it's details now.
DragonRune SpellSmith and SpellSword's Apprentice have tails on both genders now.
Desolate Rogue Female no longer has a gap at the shoulder.
CyberCaster Armor and Digital Dark Caster Armor now has the same glow on both gender boots.
Obsidian BladeMaster Male now holds a weapon properly.
Frozen Guardian Blade and Sparkling Pomegranate Flopper have been de-evil-pixelized.
Paragon Naval Commander red and blue variants have had multiple fixes done so both genders are more similar now.
Doom Prismatic Composer Armor female has had shoulder surgery to put it back in place.
Assassin of Shadows Male has had the extra bits and bobs removed.
Diving Gear - Male shoulder and neck fixed. Female leg fixed.
Shiny Cape no longer crowding on you.
Spiked Guard’s Helm - all versions have been made to align the same.
Chromium Void Chrono Staff repositioned.
SteamPunk Pirate Captain Male had misplaced CC bits. Removed.
Prismatic 7-Tailed Fox Tail has a full outline now.
Demonhunter Horns front horn now properly layered.

Not Fixed & Why:

Frostval Barbarian Helms that were not released was intentional. Not everything is always used, or used at the same time.
Frostval Barbarian items which drop from monsters are not meant to be in the Collection Chest. Only items from Quibble were guaranteed to be in it.
Overlord's Fiend Horns Cape and Overlord's Fiend Wrap + Horns - sorry but black has no "glow" to it.

Artist Choice:

Inclination for Incantations is being held as you would to read it.
Locks Of Viltusial break over the eye. (side bug of cutting into the shoulder is a layering problem and to fix it would require redrawing the longer hair)
Chromium Void Polearm was not intended to have a glow. The glows were only supposed to begin with the Chromium Void Chrono level.

Extras:

Remember non-standard armours?

Enchanted Void Awakening is a different shape than the normal template.
Fantasy Bard Male, SpellSword Artifact Hunter Male, Legion Jolly Roger Armor Both - these files are very old and their layering did not follow the normal patterns. They’re as fixed as they can get now.

Pets being annoying?

Mediator Bullpup CC. Item colouring bases can come in 3 “tones” or “shades”, dark, light or none. Which one is used is up to the artist who made the item.
Bonus to this - pets were never supposed to be able to CC. They break. The "returns to base colour on room change" is just one example of this.
10th Anniversary Nulgath Pet and Eternal Champion's Nulgath Pet are as fixed as they can be due to the above issue.

Tags: Patch Notes, Cemaros,

January 18, 2019

Nulgath the ArchFiend's Birthday

Twisted Trials and Terror are headed your way

Nulgath the ArchFiend, Lord of the Oversoul and ruler of the Nation, has not been seen on Lore or in the Oversoul for several years now.* In his absence, his minions are growing ambitious. Even... giddy with all the opportunities for profit and plunder they see. Log in this weekend for two new adventures - for fans and members of his Nation, Nulgath’s Twisted Court Jester will send you on a torturous scavenger hunt for wicked rewards. Then, battle the Fangs of Flame in an all-out war for control of the Dragon's Lair!

For all of you dedicated to defending Lore, your battle awaits! Vasumar, the Flame Dragon Lord, has secured a route into our world... and his sights are set on Vasalkar's Lair. Fight draconic creatures flooding in from the Oversoul and keep the red dragon's lair free of invaders!

Heroes vs OverSoul Flame Dragons: This Means WAR!

You face a 300,000 wave army of alien-invading flame dragons... to save the Lair, you'll need to raise the war meter to 100%! If you're only just joining us, here's how you fight in a war alongside your fellow heroes:

Log in and click the button on your game menu to go straight to the event in /lairwar
Talk to Galanoth to accept the war quests to DEFEND the Lair
Talk to Raask to accept the war quests to ATTACK the Lair
Slay your opponents to complete your quest
Click on the war meter to turn your quest in and raise the war meter

If you are fighting to defend the Lair, each time you complete a quest, you'll have a chance to get one of the pieces of the DragonLord GrandMaster armor set.

If you are fighting to attack the Lair, each time you complete a quest, you'll have a chance to get one of the pieces of the Void BattleMage armor set. Both sets were created by AQW Community artist, L A E.

The winner takes control of the Dragon's Lair... and the losing side will need to fall back, tucking their tails (or capes) between their legs in defeat.

Whether you're a fan of Nulgath the ArchFiend or just love pounding on draconic monsters from another world, the adventures begin this Friday!

Along with the scavenger hunt and micro-war, we'll have an all-new birthday shop with seasonal and perma-rares (including the Void Awakening sets from Oversoul) plus an update to the Enchanted Nulgath Nation House.

Casparilla's Fiendish Reward Quests

If you're a fan of Nulgath's Nation, you're no stranger to hard work... or almost-tortuous quests. This weekend, log in and /join citadel. Find Casparilla... because she's got some games for you to play while Nulgath's away. And if you know ANYTHING about Nulgath, you know that the only Court Jester he'd keep is a crazy-loyal and just plain INSANE trickster.

Complete Casparilla's quests to unlock the pieces of the 0 AC Elite Void armor set from AQW Community Artist, Reki Roland. Hardcore Nation fans can also complete Casparailla's SUPER evil bonus quests to get two exclusive swords and a floating sword pet.

MORE UPDATES!

If you helped test the AQWorlds Server PTR back in 2016 and saved your Quest Mission Sprockets, at long last your reward is here! Find the Sir Ver Bank pet in Vinara's Odds and Ends shop in /battleontown for 125 sprockets. If you did not farm enough to get the free bank pet, we have a Sir Ver cape in her shop, too, for 25 sprockets.

If you were a 1st Upholder in OverSoul, head to the Portal Site to make sure your Oversoul and AQWorlds accounts are linked. You'll get a code and, once you redeem it, you'll unlock a Book of Lore badge to get ALL of the Void Rebirth and Void Awakening gear (including the Enchanted Void Awakening set) for free. This is one more way we can show our appreciation for your early support of the game.

AQ2D / Mobile Q&A date moved - I will be on vacation next week. Once I return, we'll announce the date and time of the "AQW plans for 2019" Q&A on Discord.

If you are an OverSoul Founder -- if/when we import the OS Founder armor set into AQWorlds, you would get the same deal. Free gear, even if we sell it for AdventureCoins.

The Enchanted Nulgath Nation house has been updated! Starting tonight, find:

Nulgath's NPC right there in your house!
Character customization screen
2 new exclusive farming quests, which reward the pieces of the Void Warlock set
the house has been made 0 AC

The Nulgath Nation House (which is required to unlock the Enchanted Nulgath Nation house) is also now 0 AC.

* Nulgath the ArchFiend is the in-game persona for Nulgath-the-team-member, one of AQWorlds' original artists. Though he no longer works regularly for Artix Entertainment, his art style (prevalent in early AQW and featured in Oversoul) and the character itself remain hugely popular with many of our long-time heroes. To recognize their dedication and enjoyment, we hold an event in-game each year to celebrate the character and give them a hefty dose of the gear they love.

Tags: Alina,

January 18, 2019

Nulgath's Birthday Gear

Color-custom set available for a limited time

Nulgath the ArchFiend’s birthday celebration is this weekend, and we want everyone to get in on the /party! Join us as we bring his Void Rebirth and Void Awakening sets from OverSoul into AQWorlds, in honor of the Flame Dragon Invasion event! These sets will return every year for his birthday, but the color-custom variant will ONLY be available in 2019.

Nulgath's Birthday Shop features:

Void Rebirth armor set
Void Awakening armor set
Shielded variants of both armors
Enchanted Void Awakening armor set (fully color-custom)*
Nulgath's Bounty Hunter Drone Pet (with two quests)
Nulgath's Birthday Gift Pet (with one quest)

Next week, even more gear will be added to celebrate Nulgath's birthday, including the Primal Hanzo Void armor set by AQW Community artist Saiacosta will be added to the shop and Bido's homage to the terrors of the Nation!

Nulgath's Birthday Gift and Bounty Hunter's Drone Pet*

The Bounty Hunter's Drone pet has two quests - one to farm Nulgath reagents, and the other for an armor customizer pet. Nulgath's Birthday Gift pet has the same Nulgath reagent farming quest, but does not include the armor customizer pet quest. The Fiendish Caladbolg** has been added as a reward item to the reagent farming quest on both quests.

Bounty Hunter's Drone pet: 2,000 ACs
Nulgath's Birthday Gift pet: 1,500 ACs

* The Enchanted Void Skulls Cape will be added next week.
*Dage the Evil has given this blade to Nulgath the ArchFiend to strengthen the bond they have -- as Masters of Evil, they should ally, sending their armies against common enemies. In the spirit of maintaining control over their respective demensnes, it is better to fight back to back than blade to blade. (Note: Dage will be crafting a Legion version of one of the Nation's most iconic weapons, which will arrive in March to further the peace).

Tags: Alina,

January 11, 2019

Unlock the Flame Dragon Warrior

Get the exclusive Class and Armor Set

Vasumar the Flame Dragon Warrior, leader of the Fang of Flames, is a deadly opponent. Once a fierce dragon-gang leader in OverSoul, he's come to attack the dragons of Vasalkar's Lair. You can unlock his armor set, the Flame Dragon Warrior Class, and a character page badge for $9.95 USD on our upgrade page.

The Flame Dragon Warrior's History

We released our first idle game, AQ:Dragons in December 2014. Back in 2017, we needed to update the game to Unity 5. We also had to remove the AQW account linking feature which awarded the Flame Dragon Warrior gear in AQWorlds. Because we did NOT want this set to go perma-rare, we made it available directly on our upgrade page for the same price as the original AQ:Dragons upgrade package ($9.95 USD).

One of the biggest challenges about creating and maintaining mobile games is the way the app stores and software developers are also required to update and maintain their products. That can lead to version conflicts which require updating different components of a game or, like with the 2017 changes to AQ:Dragons, significantly overhauling parts of it.

BUT on the plus side, if you didn't have a device which could run AQ:Dragons, or if you weren't aware of the Flame Dragon Warrior Class before, you'll be able to unlock the full Flame Dragon Warrior set in AQW!

Flame Dragon Warrior set + Class

Buying the Flame Dragon Warrior set unlocks the full armor set PLUS the Flame Dragon Warrior CLASS! After purchase, check your Book of Lore for the link to the shop to get the gear.

The Flame Dragon Warrior is a VERY powerful class with a skillset that's extremely useful for either boss fights (like taking down dragons), pvp (slaying DragonSlayers) or just everyday use farming (in the Dragon's Lair) .

Flame Dragon Warrior Class Skills

Auto Attack: Pretty basic. 2 second cooldown.
You need to be able to swing around your weapon somehow.

Fire Dragon's Roar: 10 Mana, 4 second cooldown
Blast 3 targets with flame to deal fire damage.
Builds stacks of Dragon's Roar which affects other abilities.

This is the ability you want to keep stacked. Stacking this ability will allow you other skills (Which we will go over) an extra kick to them

Burn Of Akriloth: 25 Mana, 15 second cooldown
Akriloth grants you the power to do a 400% DoT for 10 seconds, with a 25% chance to stun your opponents for 6 seconds with Smothering Smoke, Stacks of Dragon's Roar increase damage.

Yes, all those words and numbers are correct. You can get an extremely high DoT AND do a pretty nifty amount of damage too and even a good chance for stuns. This skill is really good for beating down something (or someone) really quick without hassle.
Note: The DoT CAN be applied even without stacks of Dragon's Roar, BUT YOU WILL NEED THE STACKS if you wish to do damage as well.

Dragon Strength: 20 Mana, 12 second cooldown
A Moderate Damage Skill. Applies Ablaze which increases Strength by 25% for 8 seconds. If stacks of Dragon's Roar are present, removes all stacks of Dragon's Roar and applies Extra Defense which reduces all damage taken by 40% for 15 seconds.

Feeling a tad too squishy? Want to buff yourself up like a (small) tank? With stacks of Dragon's Roar, your defense power grows AS WELL as your strength! It's a GREAT thing if you want to survive a few more hits and make sure you can take your opponant down. Goes great with a healer.

Fire Dragon's Scales & Dragon's BloodRank 4 Passives

The magic of dragon scales gives you 30% spell resistance.
The power of dragons blood gives you 30% endurance increase

Neat little passives. Helps you survive more. Not much to say about it.

Burning Rage: 30 Mana, 15 second cooldown

DESTROY with the power of your rage and damage! Also applies a 350% DoT over 8 seconds.
Double the DoTs, double the fun! The fun WILL be doubled with this skill! This is your boomshot, the skill you *wisely* use as you don't wanna waste your mana compltely (I'm bad with mana at times...) Anyways, as well as getting a decent strike off, you also get another DoT just to be more of a bother. Works quite nicely with Dragon's Strength.

Rank 10 Passive: Dragon's Burn
Increases your DoTs by 30%

Do you like your DoTs? Of course you do. Do you want to make them even better? OF COURSE YOU DO! Similar to Dragon Shinobi's Rank 10 passive, Dragon's Burn will give your DoTs even BIGGER damage ranges! it's a PERMANENT increase!

Overall, you can survive pretty well with the class. Your power can be used for high damage and DoT or tank it out, taking hits from everything that decides to come your way.

Tags: Alina,

January 11, 2019

New Item Set:Alpha Winter Defender

Available in the Wheel of Doom and Merge shop!

The Wheel of Doom spins round and round... and this week, as the Northern hemisphere continues battling ice, snow, and other wintery dangers, we've got an all-new, super-cool set for you -- the Alpha Winter Defender!

New Gear from the Wheel of Doom!

We know a lot of you are raring to redeem your free spins... so we're adding a full new Epic rarity set for you, crafted by AQW Community Artist, Rare! Each of the Alpha Winter Defender set pieces will be available from the Wheel of Doom and from the Doom merge shop. The bright blue fabric parts of the set shown below are color customizable.

Pieces of the set include:

Winter Defender Alpha armor
Winter Defense Scarf Helm + Locks
Snow Owl Helm + Locks
Winter Defense Beret + Locks
Winter Defense Rifle Alpha
Defender's Snow Owl Pet
Snow Owl on your Shoulder cape
Winter Defense Backrifle

All our seasonal Winter Wheel of Doom gear - including the Winter Defender set - will leave leave Wednesday, March 20th, the first day of Spring. This gear will return next year during the Winter months.

Get your Free Spins

Everyone loves to get prizes... and that's why we brought back back free spins for the Wheel of Doom!

Members get one free spin a day while their upgrade is active
All players get one free spin a week.

See the Free Spins Design Notes for more details.

Platinum Item of Donated Awesomeness

We've gotten a lot of really positive feedback after introducing the free spins... but also a lot of you who wanted 1) a way to make sure you got an Item of Donated Awesomeness and 2) kept spinning in a quest to get the Epic Item of Donated Awesomeness to drop from the Wheel... and then not didn't get it.

That's why, earlier this month, we introduced the Platinum Item of Donated Awesomeness. This item is available from the Doom Merge Shop, so even if you don't receive the EIoDA as a bonus prize, you can save up your Treasure Potions and get the PIoDA.

Important Points

The PIoDA will be a Wheel of Doom merge shop exclusive.
Cost: 1,000 Treasure Potions.
You can get both the EIoDA (from the Wheel) and the PIoDA (from the merge shop)
The PIoDA currently stacks up to x5.

At a cost of 1,000 Treasure Potions, that means a member who ONLY uses their one free spin per day/week will need to log in every day for about 2.5 years to get it... but they WILL get it eventually.

* Exceptions include staff personal items, custom weapon contest prizes, HeroMart items, etc

Tags: Alina,

January 11, 2019

This Weekend: Memet's Nightmare

A Nightmare's Nightmare: Rainbows and Sparkles

When a super-happy, over-sparkly calico cartoon character* takes over the Dream Network, Memet and the creatures of the Nightmare Realm are declared illegal. Writers, artists, and heroes who depend on darkness, destruction, and monstrous mayhem for inspiration are struggling to survive. Help her restore the Dream Network so that heroes who revel in gloom and doom can stop hiding from the kawaii-cuteness plaguing their home!

This weekend, log in and /join spookeasy to begin Memet's nightmarish adventure! And if you've got a Twitter account, wish her "Happy Belated Birthday!"

Battle the monsters in this week's event for a chance to get:

Super kawaii flamethrowers**
A very cheery pink Alpacacorn pet
Happy Balloons!!!
And more

Then talk to Memet in /spookeasy to find her "Nightmare Novelties" shop with the Spookeasy Nightmare and Memet Animatronic armor sets.

* Who is clearly a fan of Lisa Frank's rainbows, unicorns, and glitterbomb overload
** The armor and helm used by the SparkleGuards are available in Vesper's birthday shop in your Game Menu.

Memet's Belated Birthday

Memet the Nightmare Moglin*** is the staff persona for Memet, AQWorlds' lead writer. She is the one who writes and designs the weekly releases you battle through. She is a huge fan of dark, offbeat, Lovecraftian/Geiger style art and fantasy... which is why she's a nightmare creature.

We usually celebrate her birthday in November, but because of a very joyous-but-time-intensive) special release for J6 and his wife (aka, they had little J6 2.0!), we had to push it back to give J time to do all the awesome new BG art.

*** Technically, she is really a nightmare creature masquerading as a moglin.

January: Celebrate ALL the Birthday!

Ok, maybe not ALL. But many! Our month-long celebration of team member birthdays continues this weekend with Memet's belated birthday. Last week, we celebrated Vesper and Crulon's birthdays with Vesper's Pink, Purple, and Prismatic Shop and Crulon's Djinn riddle quests.

Still to come:

Friday, January 18: Nulgath's birthday scavenger hunt + birthday shop
Friday, January 25: Stryche's Werebear story, Part 1 + Captain Rhubarb's V-ARRRRRy happy birthday shop
Wednesday, January 30: Axeros' birthday merge shop

Tags: Alina,

January 11, 2019

AQWorlds' 2019 Game Plan

Mobile Port, Queen of Monsters' finale, and more!

Welcome to the new year! AdventureQuest Worlds is officially, for real, over a decade old. That's 10 years of adventures, epic boss battles, crazy banana suit-wearing, pancake-flipping... and CHAOS! Thanks to you and your fellow heroes, we are still updating the game every week with new stories, challenge fights, and rewards... our game grows each and every week.

But growing is not the same as evolving, and that's what we're here to talk about today - our plans to grow and evolve AdventureQuest Worlds in 2019.

What are the plans for AQWorlds in 2019?

This is the easiest question, and the most exciting answer:

AQW 2 / Go / Mobile / (insert new working title here) blasts into OVERDRIVE
Queen of Monsters finale (it will take about a year to tell the entire story)
Quality of Life improvements on the web version
All our weekly updates and seasonal holiday events

AQW 2: the Expansioning

What are our plans for AQW Mobile?

AQWorlds Mobile is a misnomer -- the next version of AQWorlds will play on your PC, mobile devices, and maybe Steam or consoles!

Plans for the next evolution of AQW include:

Letting you log in with your existing character
Keeping your current character's items
Increased performance and less lag
Scrolling backgrounds (like HeroSmash)
Port over 99.99% of the existing items
A more robust PVP system
Leaderboards + rewards
Better botting detection and prevention
Trading is on the wishlist. It is possible in AQW: Mobile (not AQW:web), but we'll need a lot more time spent on figuring out the logistics before we say it will 100% be included.

The first, biggest push at the moment is to make sure we have solid character, load, login, and chat systems in place. Also in current development - the map system.

We have a team wishlist for AQW:Mobile, but just as importantly… we want to know what YOU want to see added in for AQW:Mobile. Next week, we'll hold an online, real-time Q&A in our official Artix Entertainment Discord server. Keep an eye on the Design Notes for a date and time.

Tweet your wishlist to #AQWMobileWishes

so the team can keep a running tally.

Who will work on AQW Mobile?

Warlic (the AQW:Mobile project lead) got the ball rolling earlier last year. Then he was joined by AQWorlds’ lead coder, Yorumi, along with a few new programmers. They’ve been making steady progress, and at the end of this month, the group will be joined by Artix and Zhoom.

Zhoom (who is being borrowed from the AQ3D for a bit) will focus on making sure the game’s infrastructure and architecture can support everything (ALL THE THINGS!!!) we want AQW:Mobile to do.

Artix is coming on board to make sure the game plays as well as the current game does, and then will work with the team to make it even BETTER.

When will work begin on AQW Mobile?

Artix’s goal is to have something you guys can log into this year. It's going to be a challenge to meet that goal, but I believe we are up to it! Although we are automating the majority of the item ports, with tens of thousands of items, this will be an on-going process. We will start out porting the most popular and widely-used items (based on how many active accounts have them), and go from there. Like all our main games, AQW:Mobile’s development will be an active, ongoing project.

“But… didn’t Artix show a picture of AQW:Mobile like 2 years ago?” Well… kind of. But not the way you’re thinking. The first try at making AQW: Mobile began in 2016, when we began working with an offsite company (so the current in-house team could stay focused on weekly updates). That team of highly-talented coders put together a great prototype*… but one that ultimately wouldn’t scale up to what we needed, performance-wise.

What we want for the next version of AQWorlds -- what we need -- is something most mobile games don't really have to do. The level of customization, the type and amount of gear we want to bring over... we're always so frakkin' SPECIAL! And that's what makes us awesome, but also really tricky to port.

* Pictured in the image at the top of this post.

Where and Why are we doing this?

This new version of AQWorlds will let you keep your current character and items, but will let us open the game up to many, many more players who currently play games on other devices.

This is hands-down our highest priority, because even more than the downloadable Artix Games Launcher (which lets us bypass concerns about Adobe FlashPlayer dying), bringing AQW to more platforms will let us keep its development going strong… and getting even bigger.

Queen of Monsters’ Saga Finale

When the rest of the devs at the Secret Underground Lab began their week-long Game Jam, Memet (the lead writer for AQWorlds) began a 3-4 week long WRITING JAM. She, Artix, and I met late last year to review and finalize plans for the year-long Queen of Monsters’ Saga finale.

She is spending the next month outlining the next year of main saga updates. This is not the end of AQWorlds’ main story… it is just the beginning, and an entry into whole new (aq)worlds.

This story will take about a year to tell, and releases will begin after the early-year holiday events (like Carnival, Hero’s Heart Day, Lucky Day etc)

Spider-witches… Feral Troll Druids… Illusion-Controlling Infernals… ancient artifacts… and more? This is going to be an adventure to DIE for (but it is really, really important that you live!)!

Quality of Life Improvements on the Web

Over the last few months, Yorumi’s been able to add in a number of updates. So far, we’ve added in…

Increasing bank, inventory and friend spaces
Adding searching and item previews to the bank
Adding the ability to hide other players’ capes and pets (releasing tonight!)

Originally, we did not think changes like this would be possible until the launch of the new server and client on the web. But working together, last year Warlic and Yorumi got a version of the live / current client working and able to be updated.

The inability to update the existing game client was one of the main reasons we began rewriting the server and client -- we had reached the limits of the game, and it had grown too big to publish. Now that we ARE able to make changes and improvements again, we have re-focused our plans, and the new server and client will be exclusively for AQW:Mobile.

The new server Yorumi built for AQW (the web version) is the foundation that AQW: Mobile is built on. Without needing to accommodate a decade’s worth of functionality and features that had been built by many hands over many years, he was able to strip the server down to something clean, polished, and perfectly-poised to serve as the backbone of our NEW AQWorlds.

If you were one of the heroes who helped us test on the PTR servers, and have saved up your Quest Mission Sprocket, a quest to redeem them for your Sir Ver Bank pet will be added next week.

And as Yorumi has time, he’ll be free to investigate more changes to the web version of AQW.

Wait... HOW will all these things happen?!

There is a lot to do to make all of this happen, which is why we are segmenting the team intelligently. The team members responsible for the weekly releases and updates will continue working on those as AQW:Mobile programmers focus on its development.

We plan to leave the current web version of AdventureQuest Worlds up forever... or as long as the internet lets us. But no matter what Adobe does (or doesn't) do, we plan to have a version of AdventureQuest Worlds available for you to play.

We've learned a lot from the last decade of game development. That is what looking to the past should be for -- learning so that as you look to the future, you can do/build/be better, without making the same mistakes. It's always better to look to the future than dwell on the past, once you’ve learned from it.

With the new server, a team of highly-talented programmers, Artix for creativity and design direction, your feedback and requests from the last decade, and the game we have to serve as a road-map… our journey is really, finally underway.

Tags:

January 09, 2019

Coming Soon: Nulgath's Birthday

Twisted Trials and Terror are headed your way

Join us next Friday for two adventures - for fans and members of his Nation, Nulgath’s Twisted Court Jester will send you on a torturous scavenger hunt for wicked rewards.

Whether you're a fan of Nulgath the ArchFiend or just love pounding on draconic monsters from another world, the adventures begin next Friday! Along with the scavenger hunt and micro-war, we'll have an all-new birthday shop with seasonal and perma-rares (including the Void Awakening sets from Oversoul) plus an update to the Enchanted Nulgath Nation House.

Tags: Alina,

January 07, 2019

Holiday AdventureCoin Bonus Leaves Soon

Don't Miss Your Bonus AdventureCoins

Wednesday is the last full day to get up to 50% more ACs for free! Our Holiday AdventureCoin Bonus ends at 12:01 AM EST on Thursday, January 10th. If you're a Nulgath Nation fan... this is the best time to top up your ACs; his Birthday Rare Gear* + Shop arrive next Friday.

The bigger the AC package you buy, the more free AdventureCoins you'll get!

12000 AC pack: 6000 extra ACs (50% more ACs)

5000 AC pack: 2000 extra ACs (40% more ACs)

2000 AC pack: 500 extra ACs (25% more ACs)

900 AC pack: 100 extra ACs (11% more ACs)

Note: bonus AdventureCoins are only available with AdventureCoin packages. The special bonus offer does not apply to membership packages.

* Nulgath's birthday is a special event we hold each year. Originally begun to honor one of the original artists who made AQWorlds, after his departure, the holiday lives on to celebrate a fan-favorite character. The event will have seasonal rares, farming rewards, and a handful of perma-rare items for all you rare hunters.

Tags: Alina,

January 04, 2019

Riddles of the Djinn Guardian

Log in and celebrate Crulon's Birthday!

Crulon is one of the guardians of the Djinn Realm... and also one of AQWorlds top item artists. This week was his birthday, and to celebrate, he's found a chest full of treasures he wants to share with you! To open it, he'll need three magical seals... and that's where YOU come in! Decipher his riddles, locate the monsters, and fight to get the seals you need.

Talk to him in /djinn to begin his quests. Complete his Seal of Approval quest and to collect the pieces of the Serpent Knight gear. Find his Sandsea Enchanter set in his birthday shop or the Featured Gear shop in your game menu.

Real Life Quest: Wish him a happy birthday on Twitter!

Crulon, Guardian of the Djinn Realm, summons you!

Long ago, the Guardians of the Djinn Realm fought - and defeated - a powerful evil. But now, the seal binding Gedoz the Malignant has been shattered, and the Realm is once more under attack. Quest to recover the Guardians’ weapons and answer Crulon’s call to battle!

Djinn Realm Guardian Armor Sets

After you complete the story, battle to create the Djinn Realm Guardian armor sets shown below! Talk to Crulon to begin his Unseen Essences farming quest. There is a 10% chance to get the merge item resources from the quest, and an additional chance to get even more from each monster you kill!

Frostval and 10th Anniversary Events Leave Friday, January 11th

This is your last weekend to fight through all our seasonal Frostval events and unlock our 10th anniversary rare items. The special event zones, bosses, and seasonal rewards will leave next Friday.

10th anniversary Achievement Tracker reward update: the class variants have all been tested and are waiting to be placed in the mini-adventure zones. Once those have been built, you'll be able to /join your area and talk to an NPC. Then, quest to kill monsters and craft the class.

Tags: Alina,

January 04, 2019

Unlock the Void ChronoKnight Sets

Upgrade to unlock new exclusive gear sets!

Unlock the all-new Void ChronoKnight upgrade bonus gear starting Friday, January 4th at 6 PM EST! Buy any AC or membership package worth $10 USD or more to unlock the Copper Void ChronoKnight set or get the bonus color-custom Chromium Void ChronoKnight armor and accessories with the 12,000 AC or 12 month membership packs!

Pack Details

The Void ChronoKnight sets will be permanently available as one of the upgrade bonus set choices when you buy membership or AdventureCoins.
All packages also come with the Void ChronoKnight character page badge

12000 AC or 12 month membership packages: ALL 40+ Void ChronoKnight Items

Get more gear and save more of your real-world gold with our largest upgrade packages! Unlock the Copper Void ChronoKnight and the color-custom Chromium Void ChronoKnight sets with our 12000 AdventureCoin or 12 month membership packages, plus all the accessories:

Copper and Chromium Void ChronoKnight armors (Chromium armor is color-customizable)
10 helms
6 capes
20 weapons
6 pets
7 Rep/XP/Gold/Class Points boosts added straight to your inventory
and a character page badge

2000 and 5000 AC or 3 and 6 month membership package: Copper Void ChronoKnight

Unlock the Copper Void ChronoKnight armor set with the above packages, plus their accessories:

Copper Void ChronoKnight armor
5 helms
2 capes
10 weapons
3 pets
5 Rep/XP/Gold/Class Points boosts added straight to your inventory
and a character page badge

Our Upgrade Bonuses Level Up... Choose your Reward!

You'll be able to choose WHICH upgrade bonus set you want!

Next month, when we add another upgrade bonus pack, the Void ChronoKnight will still be available. So as you select the membership or AdventureCoin pack you want, you'll also choose which upgrade bonus reward you want. You'll unlock the character page badge and Book of Lore Shop like normal.

* We still plan to add a new pack each month.

New for 2019: Upgrade Set Series

We know many of you love that feeling of unlocking exclusive items, and feel really special when you have something that only a handful of other players can equip. We're bringing that to our Upgrade Packs with Upgrade Set series.

Going forward, each time we do a new upgrade pack in a given theme (like "Nulgath's Void" or "Yokai" or "ShadowFall"), we’ll add it to the series. You'll need to get the first set in a series before you can unlock the next.

Upgrade Pack Changes: Why Now?

As I talked with many of your fellow AQW players about these changes, one question repeated itself over and over: "why do we need to do this? Why now?"

Development for AQW:Mobile is going to go into overdrive in January. With AQW:Mobile, we will not be able to do nearly as many rare items (this is in large part for game performance reasons, like managing asset loading, just like in AQ3D).

It is also a pretty big blow to the artists and future players to lose access to entire sets of gear every month (one reason we did not make the Northlands Royalty upgrade sets rare).

2018 Holiday AC Bonus: Get up to 50% More Free ACs

Get up to 50% more FREE bonus AdventureCoins when you buy any Adventure package until January 10th! If you're excited about all our new January birthday events, new gear in the Wheel of Doom, or our 2019 holiday rare gear, now's the time to top up your ACs and get even more for free.

The bigger the AC package you buy, the more free AdventureCoins you'll get!

12000 AC pack: 6000 extra ACs (50% more ACs)

5000 AC pack: 2000 extra ACs (40% more ACs)

2000 AC pack: 500 extra ACs (25% more ACs)

900 AC pack: 100 extra ACs (11% more ACs)

* Note: bonus AdventureCoins are only available with AdventureCoin packages. The special bonus offer does not apply to membership packages.

Tags: Alina,

January 02, 2019

This Weekend: 2018 Honorable Hero Awards

Log in to get your Honorable Hero Prize

As a way of saying "thanks!" to the AQWorlds heroes who did not get muted or banned in 2018, and as an incentive to keep following the rules in 2019, we are awarding players who helped keep AQWorlds a positive, fun, and family-friendly game!

What's an honorable hero, you ask? Good question! They are what true in-game heroes and role models are, and we want to reward them for a year's worth of good behavior... with 500 FREE AdventureCoins and a character page badge!

Starting later this week, if you meet the following requirements

Did not receive a 24 hour or longer in-game mute or ban in 2018
Logged in between January 1st, 2018 and December 31st, 2018
Are level 11 or higher
Created your account before January 1st, 2019

Tags: Alina,

January 01, 2019

Happy Birthday, Vesper!

Pink, Purple, and Prismatic Birthday Gear is HERE!

Artix Entertainment is lucky to have one of the most sincerely positive and upbeat people I've ever met. Vesper, the Secret Underground Lab's office assistant, HeroMart elf, and the host of our weekly videos, levels up in real life today, and we're celebrating with the kind of gear she'd love to wear in real life!

One of Vesper's most awesome attributes is her constantly-changing hair color. We never know what hue she'll be sporting on any given day, which is where the "prismatic" part of her birthday shop comes in. She's a huge fan of the colors pink and purple in real life, too... so in honor of THAT (and bringing more /cheer to the new year) we've dyed a number of the cutest, most awesome items in-game pink and purple!

It features items like...