Albion Online News

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A new referral season is here! From now until October 1, refer your friends and claim your very own Snow Leopard mount skin. This skin transforms your Swiftclaw base mount into a sleek and snowy feline companion – and once you've unlocked it, it can be used by all characters on your account.

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 October 1, so you've got until then to refer your friends and claim your rewards. Note: starting with this referral season, mount skin referral rewards will not be tradable until 15 days after the referral season ends.


[h3]How to Earn Seasonal Referral Rewards[/h3]

• 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.

Summer is in full swing, and the Divine Challenge is back! For the entire month of August, earn points for open-world activities, unlock chests to get valuable loot, and claim your very own Divine Owl.
[h3]Simply Divine[/h3]
DIVINE OWL: This month's Challenge brings back the Divine Owl, a ghostly white flying mount with a brisk base move speed. This mount has a special ability, Foresight, which creates a shield that gives a temporary speed boost when broken. (Note: like all mounts, the Divine Owl can only move in navigable ground areas and cannot fly over obstacles.)

AVATAR RING: Adventurers who rack up enough total Challenge Points will also earn the Divine Challenge avatar ring, which will frame your chosen avatar in a heavenly golden aura. This non-tradable item permanently unlocks this avatar border for one character, or can be traded to the Vanity Merchant for one Vanity Token.

SEASONAL SPECIALS: All month long, reach weekly goals to unlock Divine Challenge chests. In addition to valuable rewards like Adventurer's Tomes and Silver, you'll also have a chance to unlock mystical furniture items like the Mage Statue, Magic Rune Circle, and Glass Sphere.
 
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 / avatar ring reward. So log in, head out into the open world, gather points, and claim these rewards while you can!

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Call to Arms Patch 9, AKA the Season 13 Balance Patch, is now live! This patch brings updates to Corrupted Dungeons as well as combat balance changes and quality-of-life improvements galore. Read on for more...
[h3]Corrupted Dungeon Changes[/h3]
To keep combat between different playstyles fair while discouraging endless cooldown resets, several changes have been made to Corrupted Dungeons:

• The new Corrupted Mephit mob now appears after a set amount of time and debuffs the first player passing it, allowing some time to adjust tactics while discouraging constant disengages
• Shrine must be activated within 45 seconds
• Healing Cast reduced by a further 10%
• All cooldowns reset at invasion start

[h3]Combat Balance Changes[/h3]
This patch includes changes to numerous weapon and armor lines, which are intended to bring some lesser-used items and abilities back into the spotlight and keep combat exciting and fair across a diverse array of builds. Here are just a few of the changes:

• Axes: Bloody Reap reworked into AoE execution tool; Rending Rage and Adrenaline Boost buffed
• Daggers: Deadly Swipe now consumes more energy when used purely for mobility, but is more energy efficient in fights
• Fire Staffs: New Q-ability, Searing Flame, added: shots deal moderate damage, fourth successful shot becomes Furious Flame for greater damage
• Swords: Mobility increase returned to Heroic Charge, various E-ability cooldowns reduced, Hamstring reworked, new Crescent Slash ability for Clarent Blade
• Armors: Energy Drain (Royal Armor) no longer steals enemy energy, renamed Energy Source
• Shoes: Royal March improved, effective uptime of Battle Frenzy and Premonition increased

[h3]Hideout, Zone Skipping, and Quality of Life Improvements[/h3]

• Reduced recovery time of items from destroyed Hideouts, halved recovery fee
• Overall zone skipping wait times reduced, as well as the personal zone skip cooldown
• Marketplace notifications improved with clearer information about orders
• Four new ability icons added
• Guild Season Winner popup now only shows for 3 days after season end

As always, you can read the complete list of changes in the official patchnotes.

It's been four years since Albion Online's official launch... and while anniversaries are a great time to take a look back at what happened over the past year, they're also cause for celebration! Log in now and enjoy a nine-day Fame Boost, free fireworks, and the return of a classic dungeon from Albion's beta.
[h3]The Mists of Albion Are Back[/h3]
What better way to celebrate another year in the world of Albion than a Fame Boost? Between now and maintenance on July 26, get 25% additional Fame for all ingame activities.

• At the end of maintenance on Saturday, July 17, the Mists of Albion buff will be automatically enabled for all players
• This buff automatically grants an additional 25% Fame for all activities
• The buff does not apply to Fame earned via PvP kills and Tomes of Insight, and does not boost the rate at which Challenge Points are earned
• The Fame boost ends at 10:00 UTC on Monday, July 26

Take advantage of this nine-day Fame Boost to level up your combat, crafting, and gathering!
[h3]A Classic Returns[/h3]
From now until July 31, you'll have a chance to revisit the Defenders of the Past dungeon, a classic Keeper dungeon from Albion's beta. This dungeon keeps its classic terrain and enemy layout, updated with current shrines, loot, and rewards. In addition, those who complete this dungeon will have a chance to score the brand-new Blue Anniversary Banner.

• Defenders of the Past will spawn randomly in T4-8 zones in both the Royal Continent and the Outlands (not in Roads of Avalon)
• The dungeon will spawn in both solo and group versions, with enemies and loot balanced accordingly
• The dungeon entrance will appear as a portal flanked by Anniversary Banners
• The final boss chest will give a chance to receive the Blue Anniversary Banner along with other loot

This limited-time dungeon will only be playable until July 31 at 10:00 UTC, so head out into the open world and revisit a unique piece of Albion's past!


[h3]Celebrate in Style[/h3]
Albion's cities have been decked out with special anniversary decorations – and to help celebrate, we've sent Anniversary Fireworks to all players. Just log in between now and July 31 at 10:00 UTC to receive an in-game mail with your rewards. (Note: the mail will only be sent to characters created before July 17.)

Remember, the Fame Boost ends on July 26 and the classic dungeon and free fireworks end on July 31, so log in today and join the celebration!

Four incredible years have passed since Albion Online's official launch on July 17, 2017. Since then, the game and community have grown in ways that we never could have imagined. To celebrate this momentous occasion, we've got some special ingame events including a Fame Boost and a limited-time classic Keeper dungeon - check out this article for all the details.

Join us as we look back at the major happenings of the past year – Albion's biggest and most successful yet!
[h3]Rise of Avalon[/h3]
On August 12, 2020, the Rise of Avalon update went live. This update brought two massive new features to the world of Albion, the Roads of Avalon and Corrupted Dungeons, as well as new Avalonian Weapons and numerous other changes and quality-of-life improvements.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psUwESfA6yc
The Roads of Avalon and Corrupted Dungeons received further content with the Brimstone and Mist Midseason Update. This mini-update brought new enemies and traps to Corrupted Dungeons, increased fishing opportunities and new fish in the Roads of Avalon, new recipes, crafting and butchery improvements, and much more.
[h3]The Crystal League Championship and New Guild Content[/h3]
Albion's first-ever Crystal League Championship (which at the time was called the "Offseason Crystal Tournament") took place August 22-23, 2020. Taking place between Albion's Guild Seasons, this championship pits Albion's top 5v5 teams against each other in the Crystal Realm, with massive rewards going to the winners.



The final match came down to the last few seconds, where June Esports, after mounting an incredible comeback from a 17-70 deficit, pulled out an amazing win:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ81SchJaaU
Alongside the Crystal League Championship, guild warfare in Albion received numerous updates and improvements over the past year, as well as a unique battle mount for each season:

• Season 10
  • Avalonian Weapons, Hideouts in the Roads of Avalon
  • Season Mount: Goliath Horseeater
• Season 11
  • 20v20 Crystal League, PvE Fame buffs for world bosses, unified castle timers
  • Season Mount: Roving Bastion
• Season 12
  • Rebalanced Season Points
  • Season Mount: Juggernaut
• Season 13
  • Resource and Transmutation Changes
  • Season Mount: Phalanx Beetle

There was plenty of non-guild-related Seasonal Content throughout the year as well, including the monthly Adventurer's Challenge, bi-monthly Referral Seasons, and holiday events for Halloween, Christmas, and Easter.


[h3]An Ever-Growing Community[/h3]
In September 2020, Albion's population reached a new record of 125,000 Daily Average Users, buoyed by both the Rise of Avalon update and the introduction of two new ingame languages: Chinese and Korean. The trend continued throughout 2020 and into 2021, with a new peak of 140,000 players in March, and has continued since then, with player numbers exploding in recent months to nearly double the previous record (read on for more about that!).
[h3]Call to Arms[/h3]
On March 17, 2021, the Call to Arms update went live, bringing a complete ground-up rework of Faction Warfare. Caerleon joined the fight as a sixth playable Faction with its own unique rules and playstyle, and valuable rewards including Elite Faction Mounts became available to those who pledged their loyalty to a single city.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54OBbmUfBP4
Call to Arms also brought major changes to Hellgates, with 10 all-new maps featuring diverse enemies and layouts, an updated open-world spawn system, and all new 10v10 Hellgates for spontaneous midsize PvP. The update was rounded out with major quality-of-life improvements, particularly Loadouts, which allowed players to quickly regear based on easily adjustable presets.


[h3]A Promise Fulfilled: Albion Goes Mobile[/h3]
On June 9, 2021, Albion Online reached the final major milestone in its quest to become a truly cross-platform Sandbox MMORPG: the official mobile launch. As a core goal since the earliest days of development nearly a decade ago, the worldwide launch on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store was the next massive step in opening up the world of Albion to countless new players, as well as allowing longtime players to play Albion Online whenever and wherever they wanted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MEvv81i3ek
The worldwide launch, coupled with an exclusive cross-play reward for playing on both desktop and mobile, brought unprecedented player numbers to the game. In the week following the launch, Albion shattered its all-time record with an incredible 270,000 daily active players, nearly doubling the previous record.
[h3]Looking to the Future[/h3]
With the mobile launch complete, it was time to look to the future. In late June, Game Director Robin Henkys released a Dev Talk summing up the launch and discussing the big changes and improvements coming to the game with the next major update (watch until the end for a quick teaser of further changes as well):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcJcUMVVZyw
The energy and dedication of the Albion community continues to be an inspiration to us as we work toward making the world of Albion better and better. So as we celebrate another incredible year of Albion Online, we want to give our most heartfelt thanks to you, the Albion Online community, for your support. We can't wait to see how the game and its community reach new levels over the coming year (and beyond), and we hope you're as excited as we are for Albion's future.