The Call to Arms update in March brought a complete rework of Hellgates in Albion Online. Since then, we've been monitoring both player feedback and our own data, with the goal of making sure this system remains engaging, challenging, and fair for players of all levels. Today's patch brings numerous improvements and adjustments to Hellgate gameplay, including:

• Better 10v10 matchmaking
• Greatly improved matchmaking when chaining all Hellgate types
• Updated IP requirements and softcap, and mob behavior, for lethal 10v10 Hellgates
• Additional Tomes of Insight in chests after defeating an enemy team

To read more about these changes and the intent behind them, please see this forum post.

• Faction Warfare Changes: better reward progression, updated boss behavior, and improved notifications for Faction-related activities
• New chat commands for guild and party management
• Mobile improvements including increased maximum font size for chat
• Numerous bug fixes for both desktop and mobile

For a complete list of changes and fixes, check out the official patchnotes.

Territories will be reset this weekend - and we'll be covering it live on the AlbionTV Twitch channel starting Saturday at 17:30 UTC. Join our hosts Lewpac, Bogul, and Shozen as they cover the Invasion Day madness live! All fights are broadcast live with a 15-minute time delay.

Starting at 18:00 UTC, guilds will have new opportunities to claim territories and launch attacks. Those in the North and South American time zones can also tune in for the second round of territory resets on Sunday at 00:30 UTC with hosts Bogul, Shozen, and Robinhoodrs, with territories becoming claimable at 01:00 UTC.

Between the two reset broadcasts, we'll also be broadcasting Level 5-7 Crystal League fights with no delay at 20:30, 21:00, and 21:30 UTC.

For the complete Guild Season schedule, check out this forum post.

A new referral season is here! From now until June 1, refer your friends and claim your very own Luxury Cart mount skin. This skin transforms any Transport Ox base mount into a regal carriage pulled by your own personal attendant – and once you've unlocked it, it can be used by all characters on your account forever.

You can also earn huge amounts of Fame for your third and fifth referrals: three referrals scores you a T7 Pile of Tomes worth 100,000 Fame, and five referrals gets you a T8 Pile of Tomes granting a colossal 200,000 Fame. And as always, your first-ever referral grants an additional T8 Pile of Tomes along with the mount skin.

The current referral season lasts until maintenance on June 1, so you've got until then to refer your friends and claim your rewards.

• Send your referral link, which you can find here, to a friend. (You must be logged into your account on the website to view this page.)
• Your friend registers an account and starts playing Albion Online (preferably along with you!).
• The first time your friend purchases at least 30 days of Premium, they will trigger a reward for you.
• On top of that, for your very first referral ever, you'll receive a T8 Recruiter's Pile of Tomes, worth a whopping 200,000 Fame.

Let the hunt begin! For all of April, take the Hunter Challenge: earn points for open-world activities, unlock chests to get valuable loot, and claim your very own Black Panther mount.

BLACK PANTHER: This month's Challenge sees the return of the mighty Black Panther, a sleek feline mount with a fearsome appearance. It boasts a powerful speed boost spell that can propel its rider across large distances – helping both hunters and hunted alike.


AVATAR RING: Reach your goals to unlock the Hunter Challenge avatar ring to give your favorite avatar a hunting-themed border. This non-tradable item permanently unlocks this avatar border for one character, or can be traded for one Adventurer's Token at the Vanity Merchant.
 

SEASONAL SPECIALS: All month, reach weekly goals to unlock Hunter Challenge chests. In addition to valuable rewards like Adventurer's Tomes, Silver bags, and rare resources, this month's chests contain various hunting-themed statues and furniture items.

As always, you can earn Challenge Points by gathering, fishing, farming, and killing monsters. Points count simultaneously toward a daily bonus, a weekly unlockable chest, and the monthly mount. So log in, head out into the open world, gather points, and claim your rewards!

Call to Arms Patch 2 is here, and with it comes a new creature: now you can find Moose as a T6 Hide animal in all tier-appropriate forest zones. Moose have a chance to drop Moose Calves when killed, which can then be raised into adults in a pasture.

Once you've raised a Tame Moose, you can take it to a saddler to upgrade to a rideable mount. The Moose mount is comparable to the Giant Stag, with a robust carrying capacity and medium speed. And best of all, it shares a Mount Skin slot with Stags, and can be used with all existing and forthcoming Stag Mount Skins.



In addition to introducing the Moose, this patch also brings fixes and updates to Faction Warfare, Hellgates, and other game systems. You can check out the full list of changes in the official patchnotes.

2020 saw Albion's population grow bigger than ever before, with Daily Average User counts increasing consistently throughout the year. Starting with the Queen Update in January and growing further during the worldwide lockdowns that followed, the population hit a new milestone nearly every month. The massive Rise of Avalon update followed in August, bringing a host of new features and two new languages to the game, and by September the Daily Average User count surpassed 125,000 players.

This trend continued into 2021, reaching a new peak of 135,000 players in February. Then, on March 17, the Call to Arms update went live, bringing a ground-up rework of Faction Warfare, completely revamped Hellgates, Loadouts, and much more. The combined influx of new and returning players with this launch pushed Albion's daily average population to over 140,000, and also saw some of the game's highest-ever numbers on Twitch and Youtube.


So what's next for the world of Albion? First off, we're hard at work on the mobile version, and are putting the final pieces in place for the official Apple and Google store launches. We'll have some exciting updates soon on the mobile version, so stay tuned. And of course, we're already looking forward to the next big steps for the game, including our next major content update later this year, which will focus on improving and deepening Albion's open world.

To veteran and returning players, thanks for being part of the world of Albion and making it what it is today. And to new players, we would like to extend a warm welcome to the Albion community – be sure to visit our forum with any questions, and keep an eye out for new player video guides coming soon!

Chase away the chill of winter with the Rites of Spring! From now until maintenance on April 10, celebrate the return of spring by hunting down special eggs and unlocking unique items.
Decorations have appeared in Albion's cities, and colorful eggs have sprouted throughout the open world. Break these mysterious giant eggs open to gather Surprise Eggs, which can be spent at the Vanity Merchant or thrown to hatch a surprise of their own!

For the duration of the event, eggs can be traded with Vanity Merchants in Albion's cities for a variety of spring-themed items:

• Wearable "Bunny Stalker" Armor, Hats, and Backpacks
• Golden Egg Chests (Furniture Item)
• Chocolate Bars that boost Energy Regeneration

And like last year, you can also trade your eggs for the mighty Eggsecutioner, a two-handed weapon skin that uses Heretic magic to fire three different types of magical eggs! This weapon skin remains unlockable for Gold via the Appearance menu, but for the two-week duration of the event it can also be purchased with eggs.

And for those with Fool's Golden Eggs left over from past events, you're in luck: while the event is running, the Vanity Merchant will also accept them as currency!



Finally, starting on Monday you can join in a community-wide contest over on the forums - for more details, keep an eye on the General Discussions section.

Albion's high-stakes Crystal League competition returns with the Season 12 Crystal League Championship! For last season's winners, check out our article here​​.

The Championship will take place in the offseason between Season 12 and 13, on:

• Saturday June 12: 17:00 - 20:30 UTC
• Sunday June 13: 17:00 - 22:15 UTC

However, something has changed! To create a better experience for participants and more exciting matches, we’re updating our entry requirements. We will select 8 teams to participate in the Championship based on the criteria below, in order of priority:

• Number of Level 9 wins
• Number of Level 8 wins
• Number of Level 7 wins

… and so on. 

In addition:

• Wins will be counted based on teams with the same 5 characters
• Players cannot switch teams and try to qualify for the Championship with multiple teams

Prizes for the first- through fourth-place winners are as follows:

• First Place: Each player on the winning team will receive the extremely rare Saber Tiger Rex Swiftclaw skin unlock item and 10,000 Gold
• Second Place: Each player will receive the White Tiger skin unlock item along with 5,000 Gold
• Third Place: Each player will receive the Jousting Horse skin unlock item along with 5,000 Gold
• Fourth Place: Each player will receive the Steelplate Cougar skin unlock item along with 5,000 Gold

We’ll be publishing more details as the competition date approaches, so keep an eye out!

The first patch of the Call to Arms update is now live! This patch brings optimizations and adjustments to the update's two primary features, Faction Warfare and Hellgates, along with other changes and fixes and a brand-new Premiere Mount Skin. Read on for all the details...
The new Hell Mare Mount Skin turns any Riding Horse base mount into a dark and demonic infernal beast. This skin is available in the ingame store, and once purchased can be applied to all characters on your account forever. Pick one up today and blaze a fiery path across Albion!
Congratulations to Black 0rder on their second consecutive season win! You can check out their statue at the entrance to Conquerors' Hall.
The launch of Call to Arms saw a massive influx of players participating in Faction Warfare, which exceeded even our high-end expectations. As the system is based on a set number of points for players to fight over, we've significantly increased the overall points available to give individual players a better return on their efforts. We've also greatly reduced the point requirements for daily Faction Campaign bonuses, and we'll be reducing the overall campaign milestone requirements as well starting next month.

We're thrilled at the overwhelming response to the Faction Warfare rework, and we'll continue to keep an eye on this feature to make sure it remains fun, challenging, and rewarding for all players.
Level 2 and higher 20v20 Crystal League rewards now always include artifacts, with a rare chance of being extremely valuable Avalonian artifacts. Additionally, if no matchup is found, both 5v5 and 20v20 teams will now receive 80% of the available Season Points (previously 60%).

For a complete list of changes, check out the official patchnotes.

The Call to Arms update is now live! To mark the occasion, we've created a brand-new trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/54OBbmUfBP4
Albion's tenth major content update brings a host of new features:


Faction Warfare has been reworked to offer a much more in-depth experience, rewarding loyalty and perseverance while still allowing freedom of choice. Claim Outposts and whole zones, repel Bandit Assaults, ride into battle on six new Elite Faction Mounts, participate in Faction Campaigns, and rise through the ranks to become a legend of your city. Or throw in your lot with the bandit clans of Caerleon, where the opportunities for wealth are unlimited... as long as you keep one eye on your back.



The next phase of Hellgate gameplay is here, with a new map-based entry system, ten all-new layouts, and new demonic foes for exciting and varied PvE. PvP takes on new dimensions as well, with the ability to chain Hellgates and a new rising lava mechanic. And new 10v10 Hellgates offer thrilling, high-stakes midsize PvP for new and veteran players alike.



Call to Arms brings major quality-of-life improvements like Loadouts, updated ability tooltips, and animated vegetation alongside numerous additional improvements, fixes, balance changes, and optimizations.

For the full list of features, improvements and changes, see the official patchnotes or check out the update page!