The hectic, war-torn northern continent of Auroria will be open for invasion in November. Let’s review what the “Land of Origin” has in store for new players and their guilds.
The last few weeks have been a kind of limbo for experienced ArcheAge players. Having already earned their Hasla weapons, ran Greater Howling Abyss a million times for armor or crafted better equipment from scratch, there’s not much left to do on the southern continents of Nuia and Haranya. Most players have taken to fishing, trade pack running and killing world bosses over and over. The Kraken has been conquered multiple times already, but Morpheus remains a slippery target for most guilds.
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Thankfully, the Halloween-themed “Hallowtide” event brings festive costumes, candy and furniture to players who may be getting bored of taking part in arena battles every fifteen minutes (my preferred method of wasting time). The candies offer small boosts to drop rate, experience gained, move speed and a few other stats. The costumes are standard vampire and witch getups. The event quest itself is a little disappointing: grow or buy some pumpkins and turn them in at an auctioneer. Maybe Trion Worlds has something more involved saved for the last day, but I have my doubts.
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Trion has tentatively committed to opening Auroria on November 4th, but the way they worded their forum post allows them some leeway (“targeted for launch”). If all goes well, players and guilds will be racing up north to claim land on the war-torn landmass. Six zones will be open to exploration: Heedmar, Marcala, Nuimari, Calmlands, Sungold Fields and Exeloch. Only four of the zones have points capable of being captured for castle placement (Sungold and Exeloch are the odd men out for now).
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Climbing the Esya Dena volcano on Auroria is a fun waste of time.
For players who experienced Auroria during ArcheAge’ extended Alpha phase, a few things have changed. For example, the treasure mimics that used to be a fun source of gold have become useless after XLGAMES removed the Bugira Coin item from global loot tables. Bugira Coins were meant to be used at the Rabbit’s Foot Casino on Mirage Isle, a building that XLGAMES finalized years ago but never actually activated. It’s just sitting there; bunny girls locked behind closed doors, puzzle machines waiting for customers that will never come.
There are other changes to Auroria that returning players might notice and I won’t spoil. The biggest concern for most guilds when the continent opens up will be racing to or fighting to claim an Archeum Lodestone. The recipe to craft the trade pack necessary to claim a castle area still hasn’t been revealed publicly but, if third-party databases are to be believed, it’s going to be very expensive. Trion may even switch up the required materials at the last moment to give smaller guilds a fighting chance. Meanwhile, regular players will be attempting to claim farmland and housing space before packet hackers do.
There will be blood, I guarantee it.
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The world's saddest casino.
A quick note for folks who were planning to use the portals in major cities to teleport up north after the patch hits: the portal will send you to Diamond Shores, an area that Trion Worlds has stated won’t be opened. Thus you’ll be sent back to wherever you teleported from and you’ll be out 3 Hereafter Stones, unless Trion reverts the portals to point at Calmlands.
