It's been a while since our last Dev Talk, and many of you have been eagerly awaiting updates. In our newest video, Game Director Robin Henkys introduces some of the major new features coming to Albion with the next content update, including changes to the Roads of Avalon, a massive new feature called the Mists, and a new line of artifacts for trade and crafting.


Prefer a written summary? Then read on…
Following player feedback, the Roads of Avalon are set to receive a rework in our next major update:

• Roads will be focused on small group gameplay
• It will be easier to establish a Hideout in the Roads, but more difficult to control an entire Hideout region
• It will be more difficult to control high-value zones, making Roads exploration more competitive and exciting
• Rewards will focus more on group gameplay and enemies that upgrade over time
• The Roads will also receive a visual update

The Mists will be a brand-new environment with its own gameplay possibilities:

• Accessed via a network of unpredictable and temporary connections, like the Roads
• Each entrance will only allow a single player to enter before it disappears
• A single Mists region will have multiple entrances, allowing for chance encounters between solo players
• Gameplay will be a mixture of solo PvE and solo PvP, with an emphasis on exploration and risk-taking
• Visually and thematically will be the most magical area of Albion so far, with all-new music

• Within the Mists players can encounter a new range of fantastical creatures
• These drop new artifacts that can be used to craft brand-new items
• The items needed to craft these new items are unique to these creatures in the Mists, adding new dimensions to trading, crafting, and PvE

A new City exists within the Mists, acting as a hub for trading and other activities:

• This City has no fixed, physical location, but can be said to ‘drift’ in the Mists
• Entrances can sometimes be found in the Mists and the Roads, but not all will be able to enter
• This City will offer instant access to the Roads, Mists, and other forms of small-scale content that can be encountered elsewhere
• It will serve as an ideal base for advanced solo and small group adventurers

We hope you enjoyed this glimpse at some of the forthcoming features we’re working on, and we can’t wait for you to try them out and discover exciting new ways to play. We’ll be going into further detail about these in future Dev Talks - and until then, see you in Albion!

As Albion heads into the darker part of the year, one force stands against the shadows, bringing an aura of brightness to all who cast eyes upon it. In a land of danger, beset by demons and fire, there are those who cast light into the darkest corners and offer hope to their allies. Will you heed the call and become a force of good, standing against evil?

Spread the light with a new vanity set for all your characters, coming next week!

The wait is almost over: the Crystal League Championship is this weekend! Starting Saturday at 17:00 UTC, tune in to AlbionTV to watch all the action live. Winners will receive huge Gold rewards and rare mounts, with the first-place team walking away with the ultra-rare Sabertooth Rex Swiftclaw Skin.



Join hosts Shozen, Lewpac, and Tazzik as they bring you live coverage and commentary on these high-action fights. Here's the weekend's schedule:

• Saturday, September 10: 17:00 - 20:45 UTC
• Sunday, September 11: 17:00 - 21:45 UTC

This CLC is the first that will be open to players from both the Lethal and Non-Lethal Leagues, and matches will be hard-capped and full-loot. Check out detailed brackets below (click to expand):



(Note: the above end times are approximate, depending on how long matches run.)

For team breakdowns, full rules, and the final schedule, keep an eye on this forum post.

The chill of fall is beginning to creep into the air... and the Heretic Challenge is back! For the entire month of September, earn points for open-world activities, unlock chests to get valuable loot, and claim your very own Heretic Combat Mule.

HERETIC COMBAT MULE: This month's Challenge brings back the Heretic Combat Mule, a war machine from the twisted minds of Heretic saddlers. The Combat Mule fires a powerful cannon shot that knocks back and slows targets, but watch out for its massive recoil!


AVATAR RING: Adventurers who rack up enough total Challenge Points will also earn the Heretic Challenge avatar ring. This non-tradable item permanently unlocks this crazed, ramshackle avatar border for one character, or can be traded to the Vanity Merchant for one Adventurer's Token.


SEASONAL SPECIALS: All month long, reach weekly goals to unlock Heretic Challenge Chests. In addition to valuable rewards like Adventurer's Tomes, Silver, and resources, you'll also have a chance to unlock special furniture items like the Heretic Lantern, Heretic Junkpile and Heretic Scarecrow.
 
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 and avatar ring rewards. So log in, head out into the open world, gather points, and claim these rewards while they last!

We’re excited to announce that in the coming weeks Albion Online will be launched in two new languages: Italian and Japanese! Players will be able to log in and play the game entirely in these two languages with both existing and new characters, and will also have access to language-specific in-game chat channels and dedicated subforums.

With this expansion, we hope to encourage even more players to enter the world of Albion, as well as bringing an improved gaming experience for our existing Japanese- and Italian-speaking players. Very soon our website will also be available in these languages, with all articles and patchnotes translated to keep you up to date.

We can’t wait to see Albion become an even more vibrant world with this development, so stay tuned for further details soon!

Albion’s seventeenth Guild Season starts on September 17, and brings some important changes to the Crystal Arena, open-world chests, Headquarters Hideouts, and more. Read on for details, or click here for the complete Season 17 schedule.
From Season 17 there will be additional substeps in the Crystal Arena ranking system. While the amount of Ranking Points needed to reach maximum rank remains the same, there will be extra steps between the ranks (Iron III, Iron IV, etc.) As a result, there are now more Chests available for ranking up in a Crystal Arena Season. Additionally, Arena rankings will not fully reset, but instead players will be partially ranked down at the start of the next Season. For example, Crystal Rank players will start at Silver I. All upranking rewards that are skipped will be received in an in-game mail.


Headquarters boosters are no longer obtained at the end of the season; instead, each guild will always start with a booster. Guilds must still meet the Season Points threshold to use their booster. Using the booster, though, will now trigger a 90-day cooldown. These changes should make it much easier for new guilds to establish a Headquarters Hideout in the Outlands.
Large open-world treasure chests will contain more valuable loot, but will spawn less frequently to make this content rarer, more desirable, and more competitive for groups.

Small open-world treasure chests will take three minutes to unlock instead of five, making it less likely that organized groups form and giving solo players a better chance to fight over them.



Additionally, Regular Chests will also be slightly more valuable overall, making these open-world objectives more rewarding for all players.

Crystal Spider Might Levels will be adjusted, with levels much easier to attain. As a result, each Crystal Spider will indirectly give significantly more Season Points, making them more attractive season objectives. Guild Levels for Hellgates and Corrupted Dungeons will also be easier to reach, allowing guilds to progress faster through these activities.
This season will be one week shorter than most. However, the final three weeks of the season will offer triple Season Points from Territories and triple Might and Favor from Siphoning Mages.
Corrupted Dungeons: After defeating another player or getting banished, players will now be able to immediately enter a new dungeon or exit into the open world. This allows players who are interested purely in the PvP aspect of this content to directly start another invasion without needing to clear their own dungeon first.



Guild Season Rewards: In order to receive guild rewards, players must now again be a member of the qualifying guild for at least 75% of the season. Qualifying time spent with a guild will be easily visible in a new UI.
Players who gain enough Might will receive unique Avatar Sets, as well as the Ancient Ent and valuable Fame Buffs. Might is earned through a huge range of activities in the Conqueror's Challenge, and there are additional bracket rewards for guilds who reach at least Iron Rank. And as always, the season's number-one guild will become a permanent part of the world of Albion with their very own statue in Conquerors' Hall.


The season kickoff on Saturday, September 17 will be broadcast live on AlbionTV starting at 17:30 UTC, with hosts Shozen, Lewpac and Bogul bringing full coverage of Invasion Day.

At 18:00 UTC all territories will be reset for guilds to claim. Those in the North and South American time zones can tune in for the second round of territory resets on Sunday at 00:30 UTC, when hosts Shozen, Robinhoodrs and Tazzik cover the next round of invasions. All open-world fights are broadcast live with a 15-minute delay.

Check out AlbionTV's coverage of the last Invasion Day here:


For the complete Season 17 Schedule, see this forum post.

As the Albion summer draws to a close, and with the cold nights of fall not far off, it’s time to think about your outfit for the season. Well as luck would have it, right now you can enjoy a massive discount on the chilling Keeper of Souls Vanity Bundle until August 31!

This premiere bundle comes not only with a full costume set and a macabre mount skin for your Giant Stag or Moose, but also includes the Phylactery of Souls, a costume weapon in the form of a large lantern-topped staff that gives off an otherworldly blue-green glow, striking fear into your opponents as you approach.

In total, the Keeper of Souls Bundle includes the following vanity skins:

• Keeper of Souls Cowl
• Keeper of Souls Armor
• Keeper of Souls Boots
• Keeper of Souls Cape
• Phylactery of Souls costume weapon
• Keeper of Souls mount skin for your Stag or Moose base mount

(As with past bundles, you can use all costume, weapon, and mount skins with all characters on your account, and they are never lost or destroyed. All items will be unlocked in the ingame "Appearance" menu after purchase.)

This offer is available to all players using the native client, Steam client or Google Play, so check out the in-game store now and take advantage of this deal!

As the people of Albion enjoy the late summer sun, harvesting their crops and relaxing by the water, an unwelcome surprise awaits. From all around, an unfamiliar beast is coming to cause havoc. The Cursed Direboar has appeared in Albion, and you can pick up this brand-new mount skin from the in-game store!

This premiere mount skin transforms your Direboar base mount into a snarling, ravenous creature from the depths. With huge piercing tusks and a terrible fire burning within its mouth, it’s sure to terrify your fellow adventurers as you ride up to loot, ransack and ravage.



This skin provides a great option for those looking to enhance the look of their trusted Direboar mount, and of course, like all mount skins it can be used by all characters on your account once unlocked.

Go pick one up today and lay waste to your enemies’ lands!

The Season 16 Crystal League Championship takes place September 10-11, with Albion's top Crystal League players facing off for tremendous prizes including the ultra-rare Sabertooth Rex Swiftclaw Skin. This time, the tournament will be open to teams from both the Lethal and Non-Lethal Crystal Leagues, with the top six teams from the Lethal format and the top two teams from the Non-Lethal format qualifying based on the following:

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

(Note: each player can only qualify for the tournament once through either the lethal or non-lethal format)



As with the previous tournament, matches will be hard-capped to limit the overall regear costs to teams, and the tournament will be full-loot.

Additional rules:

• Teams must sign up by Tuesday, September 6 at 10:00 UTC
• Teams must consist of five qualified players, at least four of whom must have qualified with the same team this season
• A player cannot qualify with multiple teams
• Each team can allocate one substitute in addition to the five players on the team
• For full rules, signup info, and the final schedule, see this forum post [Forum post]

As always, you can watch the action all weekend long on AlbionTV, the official Albion Online Twitch Channel. Join hosts Shozen, Lewpac, and Tazzik as they bring you live coverage and commentary on these high-octane fights. The reigning champions will be crowned and receive their prizes at a ceremony after the final match on Sunday.

Get ready for Albion's next high-stakes tournament, and keep an eye on our forum for updates! In the meantime, check out these Level 8 and 9 matches from earlier in the season:

Into the Fray Patch 4, AKA The Arcane and Frost Patch, is here! This patch brings the long-awaited reworks to the final two Magic Staff lines, as well as unveiling a new season winner statue, introducing changes to Black Zone looting, and much more. Read on for details…

This patch completes the overhaul of the Magic Staffs weapon line that was kicked off with the Into the Fray update. With entirely revamped visuals and animations, along with new and reworked abilities, Arcane and Frost players will enjoy a fully refreshed and revitalized combat experience. For full details of the spell changes, see the patchnotes.



With the statues safely back home in Conquerors’ Hall following the Living Legacy event, a new face has joined them! So congratulations to Season 15 winners Elevate, whose statue now sits at the entrance to the Hall, along with the banners for second and third-place guilds Team Pilas and RAQ.



To give active PvP participants a better chance at gaining and keeping the spoils of their battles, changes have been made to loot restrictions in the Black Zone. For the first 90 seconds after a black-zone kill, the dead player can only be looted by their own allies, the player who dealt the killing blow and their allies, or the player who dealt most damage and their allies. After 90 seconds anyone can collect the loot again.

• Updated Building Nutrition and Trade UIs
• Might from Castle and Outpost Chests now distributed in a wider radius
• Buffer zones added around open-world furniture
• … and more

For a full list of changes, read the official patchnotes.