Albion Online News

The Energy Surge Season starts September 25, featuring a shorter 6-week structure, accelerated point multipliers, and unique one-of-a-kind rewards for the top guilds. In anticipation of this unique standalone season, today's patch brings changes to Guild and Faction Warfare, quality-of-life improvements including new Nametag options and better Usage Fee notifications, and new artifact drops in the open world.
[h3]New Artifacts Added[/h3]
As part of the brand-new War Gloves weapon line coming with the next major content update, new artifacts have been added to mob and chest drops in the open world.



These artifacts cannot yet be used for crafting, and only appear in limited quantities for now, but they already offer economic and PvE players a new item line to start collecting and trading.

For more on War Gloves and these new artifacts, watch the latest Dev Talk.
[h3]Guild and Faction Warfare Changes[/h3]

• Entering Hideouts now requires a channel for players who have not set the Hideout as Home
• Removed doors of Castle Outposts to make them easier to conquer by smaller groups, reduced warning messages when outposts are under attack
• Level 6 Crystal League Tokens (5v5 and 20v20) are now non-tradable
• Decreased penalties for enlisting with Factions with low recruitment rates, increased value of red zone Faction kills
• Increased values of areas previously owned by non-Caerleon Factions during Bandit Assault

[h3]Quality-of-Life Improvements[/h3]

• Added option to display guild names of other players without displaying player names, and players flagged to the same Faction now appear as allies
• Added "Tomes" category and "Mount" subcategories to Marketplace
• Popup message now displays when the Usage Fee of a crafting station was recently changed
• When both players in a Corrupted Dungeon are knocked down, get-up time is greatly reduced

On top of the changes listed above, there are also numerous Combat Balance Changes, bugfixes, and other improvements. As always, you can read the complete list of changes in the official patchnotes.

The wait is almost over: the Season 13 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 Saber Tiger 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 18: 17:00 - 20:30 UTC
• Sunday, September 19: 17:00 - 22:15 UTC

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 Mists of Albion are back! Between now and maintenance on September 20, get 25% additional Fame for all ingame activities.

Here are the details:

• At the end of maintenance on Monday, September 13 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, September 20

Take advantage of this week-long Fame Boost to level up your combat, crafting, and gathering!

The brand-new Mistwolf skin is now available in the ingame store! This premiere mount skin transforms your Direwolf base mount into an ethereal beast born from the shadows of Avalon.

With their high overall speed and maneuverability, Direwolves have been one of Albion's most-used mounts since the early days. The Mistwolf adds further options for those looking to upgrade their Direwolf's appearance, and joins a growing collection of skins for this ever-popular mount.

[video]http://assets.albiononline.com/uploads/media/default/media/f515bb2d26e37e15c3aa9b449290810257d45a31.mp4[/video]
Like all mount skins, once the Mistwolf is unlocked it can be used by all characters on your account. Pick one up today and stalk the wilds of Albion in style!

The next Guild Season kicks off on September 25! (See the full schedule here). The standalone Energy Surge Season will run for approximately 10 weeks, and will have a unique structure and unique rewards, which include the ability to designate an HQ Hideout for guilds who earn enough Season Points, plus four different brand-new avatars, a one-of-a-kind winner statue placed in the open world, and more. Read on for all the details!
[h3]Unlock Your HQ Hideout[/h3]
In our last Dev Talk, Game Director Robin Henkys introduced HQ Hideouts, a new feature that allows guilds to designate a single Hideout as their primary headquarters. As these special Hideouts are highly resistant to attack, they offer smaller guilds a chance to gain a foothold in Albion's black zones for as long as they are properly maintained.



While this feature is still in the development phase and many more details are forthcoming, the ability to claim HQ Hideouts with the next update will be based on total Season Points earned during the Energy Surge season. The following Season Point thresholds apply for where HQ status can be assigned in Season 14:

• Quality 6 zones (inner circle of Outlands): 200,000 Season Points
• Q5 zones: 120,000 Season Points
• Q4 zones: 80,000 Season Points
• Q3 zones: 40,000 Season Points
• Q2 zones: 20,000 Season Points
• Q1 zones (outer ring of Outlands + all Roads of Avalon zones): 10,000 Season Points

Going forward, the ability to assign HQ status to a Hideout in a given zone will be dependent on points earned during the prior season. We'll have plenty more details on this feature in the coming weeks, but for now, you can prepare for the Energy Surge season by checking out the complete list of zone quality levels in this updated forum post.


[h3]Bracket Rewards... and an Open-World Statue[/h3]
As always, members of guilds who reach a high enough rank during the season will receive special rewards. This season, these rewards will include the powerful Tower Chariot battle mount for guilds who reach Silver Rank or higher, unique Crystal, Gold, Silver and Bronze Energy Surge Season Avatars for all ranks Bronze and higher, and Tomes of Insight. Here's the full rewards list (click to expand):



Additionally, the top five guilds of the season will receive a 90-day Fame Buff to gathering and PvE, and the top three guilds will each receive a season winner statue with a permanent place in Albion's open world! Here's the detailed breakdown (click to expand):



The first-place winners will be able to select the design and placement of their statue in collaboration with our team after the season ends, while the second and third place winners will receive a standard statue with their guild logo, which can also be placed in the open world in collaboration with our team. Take advantage of this one-of-a-kind opportunity to make your guild a permanent part of Albion's landscape!

The new season starts September 25 – get ready to rack up Season Points and unlock these unique rewards!