Albion Online News

The holiday period is upon us, and you can enjoy it in style with the Festive Reindeer when you refer just one friend this Referral Season!

This decorated deer brings the yuletide spirit to your Stag base mount, resplendent with holly, candles, and other apt adornments. And once unlocked, it can be used by any of your characters on that server, so you can partake in the festive spirit at any time!

As always, there are big rewards for your third and fifth referrals: a T7 Pile of Tomes worth 100,000 Fame for your third referral, and a T8 Pile of Tomes worth 200,000 Fame for your fifth. And for your first ever referral, you’ll get a T8 Pile of Tomes in addition to the Festive Reindeer!


[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 massive 200,000 Fame.

This Referral Season lasts until 23:59 UTC on December 31, so invite your friends today and enjoy these rewards!

Winter has returned to Albion, and the Yuletide Challenge is back! For the entire month of December, earn points for open-world activities, unlock chests, and earn rewards like an avatar ring, classic furniture items, and the beloved Snow Husky mount.

[h3]Yuletide Greetings[/h3]

SNOW HUSKY: You’ve got another chance to claim the charming Snow Husky, a handsome canine companion that will carry you through Albion’s harshest terrain. Along with its strong base move speed, its Hunting Instinct spell gives a short but powerful speed burst.


AVATAR RING: Along with the Snow Husky, adventurers who reach this month’s total point goal will unlock the Yuletide Challenge Ring, which gives your avatar a cheery holiday look any time of year. And remember: unclaimed Adventurer’s Challenge Rings can always be traded in for Adventurer’s Tokens at the Vanity Merchant!


SEASONAL SPECIALS: Unlock Yuletide Challenge chests to get a mix of holiday-themed prizes, along with goodies like Silver, Tomes of Insight, treasures and resources. Each chest has a chance to give classic Yuletide decorations like Presents and Decorated Trees as well as the Yuletide Candle, Wreath, Lantern, and Candy Boot!


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 reward. So log in, head out into the open world, gather points, and claim these rewards while they last!

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The Steam Awards are back! This year, a new "Labor of Love" category honors games that have been out for a while, but continue to receive strong development and community support.

Whether you're new to the game or have been playing for years, we'd be honored to have your support! Nominations are open from now until November 28.

Albion Online truly is a "labor of love" for us, and we look forward to supporting and growing the game for years to come. Thanks to you, our Albion community, for your support and for making the game what it is today!

This Saturday is the final Invasion Day of the season - points will be doubled, and we’ll be showing the action live on AlbionTV!

At 13:50 UTC on Saturday 18 November you can join hosts Robinhoodrs, Shozen, and Bogul for coverage of the final round of the day’s invasions on Albion East. Then, at 17:50 UTC, Shozen, Lewpac, and Bogul will bring you coverage of the first round of territory resets on Albion West. Finally, at 00:50 UTC on Sunday 19 November, Robinhoodrs, Shozen and Tazzik will present the second round of territory resets on Albion West. Tune in to make sure you don’t miss any of the action!

For current season schedules for Albion West and Albion East, see this forum post.

With Wild Blood having expanded Albion’s gameplay significantly, it’s already time to look forward to what the future will bring for the game. In this new Dev Talk, Game Director Robin Henkys shares some of our thoughts and impressions about the update, and what that means for Albion going forward.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h3]The Wild Blood Update[/h3]
Wild Blood took longer than most updates to produce, for a number of reasons:

• The launch of Albion East, and the various challenges this presented
• Multiple groundbreaking features
  • Shapeshifter Weapons work differently to any previous weapon line
  • Awakened Weapons added new stats to the combat system
  • Tracking brought new quest and spawning systems to the open world
• Working on many features in parallel means they slow each other down somewhat

[h3]New Update Cycle[/h3]
With this in mind, we’re looking at ways to get updates out more quickly and reliably:

• Updates will be tied to the Guild Season schedule, coming roughly every three months
• Updates will be smaller, and targeted at a specific area of the game
• Other changes being worked on can be released as and when they are ready

Updates will therefore vary in size depending on how many features are completed in each cycle, and the next update will never be far off. This way we can focus on the key features of each, ensuring they are delivered to the highest possible standard.


[h3]The Next Update[/h3]
Our first update on the new schedule will release in January:

• It will focus on Guild Seasons
• It will feature a new line of rewards, which expands every season
  • These can be earned by helping your guild climb the season rankings
• The way territories produce Season Points will be reworked
• A new territory raiding mechanic will drive conflict between guilds
• Individual players will be rewarded with a daily Might bonus for successful territory control and raiding

Additionally, there will be various tweaks and rebalancing, including revisiting Hideouts and Headquarter Hideouts, to increase competition for Power Cores.

We’ll have more information for you as we approach January’s release date, so stay tuned for more!