A massive Trove: Adventures update arrives on November 14th so today we had the opportunity to sit down with Trion Worlds developers Robin “Twixler” Luera (Trove Lead Art/Animator) and Ted “Dopesheet” Sanger (Trove Senior Animator) to find out what all the voxel fuss was about!
WHAT IS TROVE: ADVENTURES?
This expansion focuses heavily on club changes (Troves equivalent of guilds/clans) starting with new club levels to achieve that are capped at level 10. These levels can be achieved from a one of the new “fixtures” admin can place in the club world called “Rally of Heroes” which spawns 3 npc (non player characters) at level 1, 4 at level 2 and 5 at level 3. Each npc has a cost and a sleep/wake cycle which leaders can also decide as you spawn them. There are 22 variety of npc who randomly spawn different rarities of adventures (white, green, purple or orange,) the rarer the adventure the longer sleep it will need. Adventures are available for twenty four hours so club members or non-club members may accomplish the objective chosen. This fixture is free as well as the “Trovian Clubit Union.”
Quest completions help level up the club and as the club you are a member of levels you will be able to then upgrade fixtures. Fixture levels provide buffs and perks benefitting all club members adding a community level layer of strategy for clubs to consider as you decide what is best for how the majority of your club play the game or leadership goals.
You can be in 5 clubs at one time but you do need to choose a primary club, whose perks you shall receive. For those who are part of quieter guilds or guilds that are no longer active that’s ok because yes, you read right when I said anyone can join any club to complete these quests so it is super friendly for new or returning players as well as sentimental/solo players and also good news for clubs determined to get to level 10 quickly.
Adventures can be completed once per 24 hours from each club you choose but you can do so approximately 200 (hard cap number to be confirmed) times per day giving you the opportunity to also farm “adventurine,” that you can spend on rewards found on two special NPCs.
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HUB UPDATES
Club Headquarters
These npc’s can be found on the roof of the Club Headquarters at the newly revamped hub that also arrives with Adventures and browse the different tiers of club adventure portals if you need to port into active clubs. There are 5 levels and each level of the Club Headquarters are arranged like this:
- Popularity – Based on the number of likes in the Club World
- Small but active – Based on the number of members who have played recently
- New Fixtures – Highlights Club Worlds that have recently added new Fixtures (powerful structures that grant various benefits)
- Club Power Rank – Promotes clubs with high PR
- Random – You never know what you’re going to find when exploring clubs discovered in one of these portals
Think of this as house of voxel billboards for clubs cheering on current contribution with every colored portal meaning something different, constant turnover and the way to appear in here is to have adventure npc’s in your club even if it’s just you in it because you never know who might come along to do your adventures with you!
PvP Battle Portal
What really stands out for those who have been playing Trove for a long time are some very long awaited features that have rolled out over the last few months continuing with the arrival of Trove: Adventures which are incredible to see happening. Along with the club headquarters updates in the hub Twixler shared with us that there will also be a new pvp battle portal update where players will be able to join free-for-all matches for the first time in Trove history!
ADVENTURE WINDOW
To help you stay organised with Trove: Adventures interface updates have occurred along with this helpful task tracker:
CLUB PERMISSIONS & RANKS
If all these club changes aren’t enough, clubs will also receive two new ranks: President and Enforcer plus all ranks will have fully customizable permissions.
MASTERY, LEADERBOARD AND POWER RANK UPDATES
Leveling Mastery
Massive updates on this front! Currently Mastery is capped at 300 but this cap is being removed with infinite levels that currently only have rewards set up to 600 though you will see them displayed on the UI up to 1000 to help developers factor in future considerations. Trove developers are also being pretty confident that reaching beyond 600 will be impossible right now though Trovians love a challenge so we will see knowing that Mastery experience needed will increase with each level starting at 100 for level 300, 101 points for level 301 and 302, 102 points for level 303 and 304 until you are needing 300 points to get to level 600. New or returning players get to enjoy the same Mastery leveling pace as everyone else has to 300 then join the challenge to higher levels. What balances this change out is the fact that Mastery will also contribute to Power Rank so characters get stronger!
Even more exciting is the rewards for Mastery which will offer Radiant Sovereigns currently only available via spending credits. Then you have tomes, castle pieces and new intuitive items like a golden pegasus at Mastery level 500 who will equip the same wings you are wearing!
So much thought has gone in to the individual and community experience with further consideration for the veteran and new player. It really feels like all parties will get to experience Trove in completely fresh ways which is no easy fete for a game that seems simple in its voxel design but comes with layers of customization and content.
Leaderboard Changes
Some content will be removed from the leaderboards including fishing and placing blocks but these changes are eclipsed by what is coming including these few things:
- Highest Club Power Rank – Counts the Power Rank of up to the top 50 members in a club. You don’t need 50 club members to earn a spot in the leaderboard, but if you have a huge club, it will only factor in the top 50.
- Flawless Ultra Shadow Tower Runs – Rewards teams for the number of times per week they defeat all Ultra Shadow Tower bosses with no Trovians dying.
- Weekly World Boss victories – Counts how many World Bosses you’ve beaten per week.
- Mastery – The Mastery Leaderboard has been reimagined as a way to grant the top 2000 players their Gold Name every week. Item rewards have been removed from this leaderboard entirely.
BUILDING TROVE: ADVENTURES
Led Blocks
As if Trove wasn’t colorful enough already! Led lighting has arrived and it looks superb! These will be available in 15 different colors with three functions:
- Persistent Blocks – Are either always on or always off, depending on which you choose.
- Short Interval Blocks – Blink on/off in 1 second intervals.
- Long Interval Blocks – Blink on/off in 3 second intervals.
Did you notice the vendor pictures above and where you buy these recipes? You can also find them in recipe dungeons or from the travelling merchant in your club.
Frameworks & Fixtures or is it Fixtures & Frameworks?
This part we skimmed over in our allocated press time slot when really I could’ve chatted for hours just about the building side of Trove and pre-built fixtures and frameworks because these time savers are a must have so players can spend more on resource farming, tower thrashing, mastery leveling or fishing! We have already touched on fixtures as part of the Adventures system offering boosts or spawning vendors but there are also castles and towers just to name a few. The most fun framework so far mentioned would have to be Utility - Special vendors.
"Utility – Special vendors, a fixture that allows your club to place down mounts as a display item to show off your club’s rarest of the rare, and more!"
Each fixture has a set “Clubit” cost which is currency earned playing the game and donated to the club by its members. Fixtures also come with a weekly Clubit tax to keep it active. Something to note again here with club updates is that algorithms for each club scales according to size and activity so I am curious to see if this also extends to costs of fixtures as well as taxes.
Recipes for new frameworks can be found in the Workbench, Forbidden Workbench, Haunted Workbench, Candy Workbench, Trove store and via Mastery rewards.
FORBIDDEN SPIRES BIOME
The Forbidden Spires biome recipe dungeons also have a rare chance to drop Advanced Frameworks adding more reasons to go there though you don’t really need any because this biome is absolutely stunning all on its own.
Forbidden Spires is arguably the best part of Trove: Adventures if you really have to choose one paying tribute to such a beautiful country and the publishers 360 Games who have taken Trove to China.
99.9% confident this is also the first biome release without a new class which is something new sending my imagination on its own adventure considering what might have been leaning toward an Airbender style Wu or shaman who uses clouds to blind, shackle or harm as well as rain, thunder and lightning. Forbidden Spires is rich in eastern influences also bringing a new resource called Cinnabar which you will need to craft Onbari, Empress of the southern skies.
A KIWI BIRDS EYE VIEW
Folks. Trove: Adventures has so much to offer everyone and this is not even every thing! I haven’t touched on Plasma Fishing (HYPE) Forged Stellar Souls, Radiant/Stellar rarity rings or the new tutorial.
For me personally - after returning to Trove 3 months ago - leveling mastery and power rank will continue to be my focus plus recipe farming. I might also play Knight with this update as it is getting some tweaks so I need to see what they are since this was the first class I played way back on the first day of Alpha when it was the only class.
Can’t wait to see how clubs encourage the community to pick their club adventures! I also really enjoy the international touches this update brings hoping this is just a beginning and we see more cultural influences in Trove.
If you have any Trove questions or if you would like me to cover any certain part of Trove: Adventures over the coming weeks please let us know below sending out a huge thank you to Dopesheet and Twixler for your time wishing everyone good luck and great fun when Trove: Adventures arrives on PC, Mac, Xbox One and Playstation 4 November 14th!
