Age of Mythology: Retold News

The next Community Event has officially begun - and with it a whole new set of challenges! The New Year is fast approaching and now through January 1st, complete objectives to to unlock a new god portrait: "Kronos - Father Time."

Remember, challenges for each week no longer lock after the week ends. After challenges become available to complete, they will remain available until the end of the month so you can now jump back in and help the community push toward the 100% completion goal!

WHAT: Server Maintenance (Matchmaking Servers)
WHEN: Monday, December 1 @ 10:00am PT / 1:00pm ET / 18:00 UTC (Countdown)
EST. DOWNTIME: 1-2 HOURS

[h3]GAMES & PLATFORMS IMPACTED[/h3]

• Age of Mythology: Retold (Steam / Microsoft Store / Xbox / PlayStation 5)

[h3]OBJECTIVES[/h3]

• Routine server updates and maintenance.

[h3]DETAILS[/h3]This coming Monday, December 1st, the platform team will be taking the multiplayer servers down for regular maintenance. Please note:

• Ranked matchmaking will disabled exactly one hour before the maintenance window to prevent disruption to newly-formed matches.
  
  
• Any matches still in progress at the start of the maintenance window will be disrupted when it begins.
  
  
• DURING THE MAINTENANCE WINDOW, YOU WILL STILL BE ABLE TO LAUNCH THE GAME, BUT WILL NOT BE ABLE TO MATCHMAKE OR ACCESS ANY ONLINE FEATURES.

To prevent any interruptions, we recommend wrapping up any games at least 10 minutes before the maintenance window. The downtime is expected to last between 1 and 2 hours. You can watch this thread with any changes to the schedule as they arise, as well as the all-clear when the maintenance is complete.

Thank you for your patience!

Get a jump on all your holiday shopping early with the Steam Black Friday Sale. Get discounts on all your favorite Age of Empires games, plus their DLCs! Don't wait - sale ends on December 2nd!

Welcome, Age of Mythology: Retold community to another fun-filled update! This one brings a massive amount of changes to the Gauntlet game mode, including new achievements, use of some Gauntlet mechanics in Singleplayer and Multiplayer, new Chaos Events, improvements for co-op, balance changes, cameras update, and more!

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

💬 DISCUSS: Age of Mythology: Retold Forum
💬DISCUSS: Age of Mythology: Retold Steam Forum
🗣 JOIN: The Age of Empires Official Discord

Thanks again to our amazing community members, all of whom have helped to make Age of Mythology: Retold a success thus far!

—The Age of Mythology Team
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       ◆ Update 18.56738◆

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[h2]Arena of the Gods – Gauntlet Mode Updates[/h2]
This patch brings many new changes to the Gauntlet game mode. New achievements, use of some Gauntlet mechanics in Singleplayer and Multiplayer, new Missions, new Chaos Events, new Favor Stash Items, new sources for Favor Stash currency, and other fixes! Continue reading to learn more about all of these features.

Plus, with this release, the BETA text no longer appears when entering Gauntlet. Thank you, legends, for your feedback so far as the Gauntlet game mode has progressed to this stage.

[h2]New Achievements[/h2]

10 new achievements are now available! Show your mastery of the Gauntlet game mode by earning them all.



[h2]Gauntlet Events in Singleplayer and Multiplayer[/h2]
You can now experience some of the Gauntlet features in other modes! In Singleplayer and Multiplayer lobbies, you can now choose to enable Chaos Events, Player Blessings, and Enemy AI Team blessings to modify your match experience. The frequency of events is modified by adjusting the Lobby Difficulty setting, much like it affects the frequency in Gauntlet mode. By default, these settings are Disabled, and they are opt-in if you would like to make them part of your gameplay.



Chaos Events: Most Chaos Events will occur in the same way in Gauntlet and other modes. There have been some changes made to improve the play experience that you can find under the balance changes for Gauntlet. Chaos Events use the Lobby Difficulty setting to control some types of events. For example, the Enemy Incursion event will only spawn Titans on Legendary.

Player Blessing Events: These blessings are applied to all human players. You can choose the maximum rarity for these events. If you set this to Gauntlet Default, it will use the Lobby Setting to match what happens in Gauntlet based on difficulty. The choice allows you to go higher or lower. Selecting a rarity means that anything between the lowest and your selected maximum would be a valid random blessing.

Enemy AI Team Blessing Events: These blessings are applied to teams that consist of ONLY AI players. If a human player is present on a team, the blessings will not apply to that AI player. You can use this option to give the AI more variable power while playing against AI teams. The selection of the maximum rarity for this type of event works the same way as the player blessing events. They are independently controlled to give more player control.

[h2]Updates to Gauntlet Mission Pools: Japanese Major Gods and Japanese Maps[/h2]
133 new missions have been added to the options for what you can randomly encounter in your Labyrinths. New missions give a similar chance to encounter each of the Japanese Major Gods as opponents and, in some cases, as your ally. You can also find some of the newer Japanese random maps while you progress through these Gauntlet mode updates!

[h2]New Chaos Events[/h2]
This patch introduces four new Chaos Events, increasing the variety of unique events that can occur.



[h2]New Favor Stash Items[/h2]
Two new Favor Stash Items join the inventory of options available for spending the Favor Stash currency. These include a way to empower your enemies for increased challenge and an item to increase your population cap that will help you overrun your foes with a larger army.



[h2]New Favor Stash Source: Daily Celestial Challenges[/h2]

Playing daily in the Daily Celestial Challenge will now earn you a small quantity of Favor Stash currency depending on your performance. The blessings continue to be rewarded every few days for continued participation. Now you will also gain a small bonus when your final rank for the previous day is announced.





[h2]Co-op Quality of Life Improvements[/h2]
Some may be trying out co-op for the first time, while others will be veterans of the Gauntlet who have been playing with a friend from the beginning. There are now several quality-of-life improvements for co-op to enhance your experience! With two new achievements to earn while playing in co-op, find a friend and enter the Gauntlet together today!

• A new button has been added to re-invite your co-op partner that you last played with during a current session when you enter a new Gauntlet mission lobby.
  
• Most badges are now available while playing in co-op mode! You can not earn badges that require winning several nodes without losing lives. Other badges are now earnable while playing as the co-op partner.
  
• You can now view which badges can be earned in co-op and which can only be earned as the host/singleplayer by going to your profile and browsing the achievements.

A Badge that can be earned in both Single player and Co-Op.

A Badge that can not be earned as a Co-Op partner.

• When you finish a mission as the co-op partner, you will now return to the main menu instead of the Gauntlet screen. This change has been made because you may not have an active Gauntlet session.

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

[h3]:alertalert: DISCLAIMER[/h3]This list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all the known issues we’re tracking. The above is to inform you of the team’s current priorities, which will change as other issues arise or take precedence.

For the latest updates and announcements, please visit our social channels.

The next Community Event has officially begun - and with it a whole new set of challenges! While frost settles on the land, the Norse prepare for the Greant Hunt! Complete objectives now through December 1st to unlock a new god portrait: "Odin - God of Midwinter." 🐦‍⬛

Remember, challenges for each week no longer lock after the week ends. After challenges become available to complete, they will remain available until the end of the month so you can now jump back in and help the community push toward the 100% completion goal!