AFK Journey: Waves of Intrigue has just been released, and with it comes a ton of new features, including a new sailing and fishing mode that will surely entice the sailors out there. We were able to sit down with Senior Marketing Manager Andy from Lilith games and Marketing Director Chase to talk a little bit about some of the details of the new season Waves of Intrigue.
AFK Journey has made some significant progress from their last major update Song of Strife, and their latest update manages to introduce some sweet new characters along with plenty of new game modes that will add to your daily tasks. When last I played the team was still working out how transitioning between seasons will work. One major sticking point was that progression essentially reset, so players had to build up their characters all over again, including the artifacts. While you’ll still need to start your season ranks over, the team has also added the ability to return to previous seasons, including the initial starter story, and relive the story.
Past Progress Reborn
Previously it was believed that Artifacts from a season would disappear once the season is over, but it seems that if you’ve spent the time obtaining everything, going back and replaying that content will allow you to use your max level artifacts as well. “If you have already unlocked all that,” Andy told me, “You wouldn't do it again, essentially.”
“Artifacts are exclusive to that (season’s) content, so you won't be like, taking them across from one season to another, you'll have access to the previous seasons Artifacts while you're playing through that content.”
AFK Journey has been adding new characters periodically, and one question I had was whether character additions and some of the minor content was aiding in the retention of the game. While they couldn’t speak directly about retention, they were able to confirm that some players do take a break but return for certain characters.
“The goal was that the new character releases are always meant to attract new players and get those lapsed players back.” Chase explained. “We do see some players coming back. Some lapsed players are coming back for the new characters, but to be totally transparent, it depends. With super popular characters (from AFK Arena), we definitely see a much bigger bumper in terms of the return players. It's not the same for every character.”
Grabbing a Collab
Chase also teased that they couldn’t say very much about what characters they intend to add in the future but collaborations are currently in the works, and they’re excited to name what those collabs in the future once more details have been finalized.
A major gripe of mine, having been a long-term player of AFK Journey was that the dailies and getting to the new content can get a little overwhelming. In addition, some of the quality-of-life features they’ve added, such as Auto-AFK progress seems to be a nice addition, but moves quite slowly, and you still must be in game to progress, which hardly feels AFK enough. While that’s not something the team is specifically aiming to address at this time, they do want to help players catch up a little faster.
“Getting into the content should feel much easier. You need to be the resonance level 240, late starters, , they store some of those missed AFK rewards and instant AFK rewards and (it will help) so players won't fall too behind.” Andy said. He went on to say that the premise of playing together is something the team is also reviewing right now.
For those unfamiliar with AFK Journey the game opens new servers as the previous ones fill up. Your server dictates the guilds you can join, some of the players you face in game modes, and also the players that are with you as you traverse the “open world”. The game also institutes districting, which means they make servers face off against one another. That means guilds from your server battle guilds from your district and so on.
Old Servers, New Homes
The main concern here is that some of the older servers that have had players leave can’t replenish their players, and that leaves fewer and fewer players to fill the guild rosters and compete against other servers in their district. Andy said the developers recently addressed this.
“The developer’s next focus is on enhancing some of the guild features,” he began. “So, they're exploring cross server guilds and server transfers. There's no solid plan to share now, but they are looking into that.” It may not be the exact answer AFK Journey players are looking for, but it’s a step in the right direction.
For players excited to try the new update, you’ll be introduced to three new characters including a powerful new Celestial tank. A new roguelike mode called the Heroic Gauntlet will also be available as part of your new weekly routing, Waves of Intrigue is available now on all mobile platforms and PC.
