OrbusVR News

Our Winter Update is available now featuring the annual Winter Festival of Strangers and the re-addition of an old fan-favorite mechanic, the Mage Tournament!

Winter Festival of Strangers
The Winter Festival of Strangers has returned so be sure to pick up all the relevant mission and quests! Simply visit:

• Festival NPC (outside the gates of Highsteppe) for the main “Strangers” questline
  
• Festival Farmer (outside Critter Capture shop) for the Floating Lights scavenger hunt
  
• Pierre Cenn (inside the Critter Capture shop) for the Snowman Critter Capture mission
  

Runemage Tournament from Pre-Born
For those of you from our “Preborn” days, you might remember the Mage Tournament practice area. Brush up on your spellcasting skills because it's officially back just outside the gates of Highsteppe!

This mechanic works the same way it did in the old game:

• Cast any level fireball and hit the pillar to activate.
  
• Only the caster can interact with it once activated until finished
  
• Earn a score based on your performance
  

Deep in the heart of the Flooded Rainforest, the veil between worlds is thinning. Is it the presence of the Weird Sisters, interdimensional travelers, that has led to the phenomenon? Or perhaps a greater force is at work in bridging the gap between worlds. Whatever the cause, a portal has opened, beckoning Patreayl’s strongest and bravest to step through. On the other side: K’tula’s Cove, sanctuary of the god of chaos himself.

Below the surface the cove looks tranquil, but the presence of Patreaylians for the first time in years has sent a ripple through the waters of this peaceful pocketworld, disturbing the rest of some of K’tula’s most trusted minions.



The new Chaos dungeon will feature five new monsters, as well as two new bosses: the Water Wyvern and King Kar'Nos, both of which feature a couple of new mechanics we hope you all enjoy discovering and mastering. (Read more about the new bosses.)

Complete the dungeon for a chance at two new pets, as well as new Laguz armor sets, which are inspired by the tentacled, underwater atmosphere of the cove. (Read more about the new armor and pets.)



The new Chaos Dungeon can be accessed via a portal in the Flooded Rainforest near the Weird Sister's hut. The dungeon will be part of the normal shard rotation and will start appearing on new shards dropped at all levels.

We hope you enjoy the new adventure!

The OrbusVR Team

In our next patch we’ll release the first Chaos Dungeon of 2022, K’tula’s Cove, which will feature all-new enemies in an eerie underwater zone.

[h2]Chaos is Calling[/h2]

Deep in the heart of the Flooded Rainforest, the veil between worlds is thinning. Is it the presence of the Weird Sisters, interdimensional travelers, that has led to the phenomenon? Or perhaps a greater force is at work in bridging the gap between worlds. Whatever the cause, a portal has opened, beckoning Patreayl’s strongest and bravest to step through. On the other side: K’tula’s Cove, sanctuary of the god of chaos himself.



K’tula is the god of the cosmic ocean, a great swirling nebula of stars from which all life was originally fashioned. He also controls the waters of the universe and as such is worshiped by the fishermen of both Taella-Oso and Taella-Bruha.

“Great Ktula, god of the cosmic ocean, we implore thee: channel the waters right, direct into our path a miraculous catch, and rot the bounty of our enemies.” - from the Scriptures of Ktula

Below the surface the cove looks tranquil, but the presence of Patreaylians for the first time in years has sent a ripple through the waters of this peaceful pocketworld, disturbing the rest of some of K’tula’s most trusted minions.

[h2]New Bosses[/h2]

Gifs of the new bosses and some enemies can be found here.

The dungeon will feature two bosses. First up is the Water Wyvern. Escaped from the fighting arenas of the Rattigard realm, the Wyvern came to K'tula's Cove looking for peace – but it doesn't take much to stir the rage of this former fighter, whose wrath is plentiful.

Delve a little further into the cove and you'll stumble across the lair of the second boss, King Kar'Nos: a crabby crustacean with a penchant for destruction that's as sharp as his pinchers.

Each of the bosses feature a couple of new mechanics that we hope you all enjoy discovering!

In addition to the two new bosses, the Chaos Dungeon will also feature five new lower-level enemies.
And while you're at it, watch out for the environment itself! It will certainly be watching you...

K'tula's Cove Chaos Dungeon will launch late May 2022. We'll have more details on new armor and pets closer to the launch date!

Hi everyone, today’s update is absolutely massive for newer players and should still include a lot of noticeable changes and content for veterans as well!

[h2]New Player Tutorial[/h2]

• New characters can now select their movement and hand options before completing character creation, and must view the Code of Conduct before finalizing it.
  
• The new “tutorial island” is a very brief introduction zone where new characters will end up, which will familiarize them with some absolute basics of interaction, with a new tutorial tracker that is up on screen at all times until tutorial is complete, as well as a better system of showing the players where to go.
  
• Once they are put in Highsteppe, players will be introduced to a more cohesive tutorial quest chain which will explain missions and many other features of the game.
  
• Added 3 new “pre-msq” quests after the tutorial to prepare you for the Explorer’s League quests.
  
• Added around 25 new context sensitive popups to explain various mechanics of the game, some which will appear when a player moves close to that feature (for example, Darius for missions), others situationally happening. Veteran players will also experience these unless they have tutorials turned off in the menu.
  
• Added a few additional help signs scattered throughout the world.
  
• Improved the journal with better bookmarks, adding labels and making bookmarks lead to the correct page
  
• Added new class billboards near the training dummies in the house and outside Highsteppe (requires help signs on)
  
• New Player House tour will explain the different features of the player house.
  
• Added labels to different menu icons
  
• Added labels to class bars like stamina and ammo
  

[h2]Overhauled Player House[/h2]

• Fully redesigned the house layout to make it match the outside more, make it larger and look less boxy
  
• Added new functioning mirror next to the transmog dresser
  
• Magical Elevator lets you move from floor to floor instantly, with a brief description of what is on the floor
  
• Added a new unlockable 8 slots per furniture chest, costing 100k dram per chest
  
  

[h2]Barmaid Jasan Questline
[/h2]

• Barmaid Jasan needs your help to solve a few problems in the Highsteppe Tavern, go speak to her when you can! Veteran players may recognize some of these characters.
  
  

[h2]Misc Changes[/h2]

• Added a safety bubble indicator to show when it is turned on
  
• Added an icon near other player health bars when you have muted them
  
• Fixed drop rate on dyes in Hard Mode Citadel
  
• Made the League Leader MSQ require level 2 reputation with Darius to prevent completely new players accidentally embarking on a journey that will be much too difficult for them
  

Finally, if you have a character already on the current (old) tutorial, you will be able to clear it from your inventory by killing a stafrusher, but we do recommend starting over to experience the new one.

Our next patch will be Tuesday, April 5, and will include an updated Player House, brand new tutorial for first-time players, and a new story questline. In today’s post, we preview some of the changes coming to the Player House.

*Note: All pictures represent in-progress work; textures and lighting are subject to change. All pictures also represent decorated rooms; not all items pictured will be in final Player House.*



It's high time the hero of Patreayl had a house befitting their illustrious status! While the previous Player House was cozy and functional, it lacked a certain panache, and following the major update to Highsteppe last summer, the Dev team thought it was time to turn its sights on upgrading the current house.

Let's take a tour, shall we?

[h2]First Floor[/h2]

When you enter your new Player House, you'll immediately notice the layout is a little different. (A little more spacious if you will.) This new interior setup was designed to match the home's exterior as viewed from Highsteppe City.



When you first walk in, you will still find your Alchemy table on the left and your Player Chest on the right – but the similarities pretty much stop there. The Alchemy table will now face the wall, where you'll find a chalkboard to house the temperature chart and basic potions instructions.

The new dragon breeding room, which is partially open to the room on the floor above

The Dragon Breeding station has now been moved to its own "pet room." Later in the year we plan to change up pet storage in such a way that will allow you to display the pets you own, which will take full advantage of the spaciousness of this room.

Your new "magical" elevator! Simply push the button for the floor you wish to visit

The grand spiral staircase

Just outside the Dragon Breeding room, tucked into a corner beyond the Player Chest, you’ll find a new feature: a "magical" elevator! This new feature functions just as a regular elevator would, and allows you to quickly move between the new floors of your home without having to take the spiral staircase up – because in addition to the ground floor and the basement, you will now have two new floors to explore and decorate.

[h2]Second Floor[/h2]

The second floor now houses several other mainstays of the Player House, including the Auction Room, Lure Crafting station, Transmog wardrobe (now complete with a vanity mirror), and Tinkering station.

The new Auction Room

The main room of the second floor will house the Transmog wardrobe and Lure Crafting station.

Check out your latest look in the new vanity mirror by your Transmog wardrobe.

The main room housing the wardrobe and Lure Crafting station has a cutout between floors, so you can keep an eye on your dragons even from the second floor. The Tinkering station is in its own room, just off the hallway.

[h2]Third Floor[/h2]

The third floor, accessible only via the elevator, houses the library and the training room. With its large windows and vaulted ceilings, we have a feeling this roomy space is about to become your favorite floor in the house.

Large windows provide ample light for reading in your new library.

The new training room

The basement will remain much as is, with both the Potion aging shelves and Artificing station still located here.

As the layout will obviously differ from the current Player House significantly, when the update goes live, all furniture and decor will be reset – so if you want to take pictures to preserve your space as it is now, now is the time!

We'll have more information on the other features of the upcoming patch in a blog closer to the launch date (Tuesday, April 5), so stay tuned!