Albion Online News

Another Referral Season is here, and this time you have the chance to claim the much-loved Steelplate Cougar with a single referral!

This skin makes your Swiftclaw base mount even more powerful and intimidating to behold - and once you’ve unlocked it, it can be used by any of your characters on that particular server (either Albion East or West).

As you may have already seen, with the opening of Albion East we are introducing some changes to our referral system:

• To make some of our most beloved skins available to players who missed them the first time, we will be rerunning some older referral rewards
• These can be any referral skins or mounts released from April 2019 onwards
• Referral seasons will now last one month, rather than two
• There will, of course, still be all-new referral skins produced
• Referral seasons will now end on the last day of every month at 23:59 UTC

[h3]Extra Gold for Founder Pack Referrals[/h3]
Remember that Albion East Founder Packs are valid for referrals - and when you refer a friend who buys one you’ll get 1,000 Gold rather than the usual 500!

Founder Packs contain exclusive Wardrobe and Mount Skins that will never be sold again, and mark the historic launch of the Albion East server. These items - and the Gold and Premium in the Packs - can be claimed on either server, so they can be enjoyed no matter where someone prefers to play.

They’re only available until 10:00 UTC on April 30, so you have until then to enjoy some extra Gold for your referrals!
[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 creates an account and starts playing Albion Online (preferably along with you!).
• The first time your friend purchases either an Albion East Founder Pack or at least 30 days of Premium, they will trigger a reward for you: 1,000 Gold for a Founder Pack, 500 Gold for Premium.
• For your first referral this month, you’ll get the Steelplate Cougar Swiftclaw Skin.
• 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 April 30, so invite your friends and enjoy these rewards!

(Please note: Adventurer’s Challenges now end on the last day of every month at 23:59 UTC.)

Let the hunt begin! For all of April, take the Hunter Challenge: earn points for open-world activities, unlock chests to get valuable loot, and claim your very own Black Panther mount.
[h3]Hunt Down Fantastic Items[/h3]
BLACK PANTHER: This month's Challenge sees the return of the mighty Black Panther, a sleek feline mount with a fearsome appearance. It boasts a powerful speed boost spell that can propel its rider across large distances – helping both hunters and hunted alike.
 
AVATAR RING: Reach your goals to unlock the Hunter Challenge avatar ring to give your favorite avatar a hunting-themed border. This non-tradable item permanently unlocks this avatar border for one character, or can be traded for one Adventurer's Token at the Vanity Merchant.

SEASONAL SPECIALS: All month, reach weekly goals to unlock Hunter Challenge chests. In addition to valuable rewards like Adventurer's Tomes, Silver bags, and rare resources, this month's chests contain various hunting-themed statues and furniture items.

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. So log in, head out into the open world, gather points, and claim your rewards!

This is the second Basic Builds guide for beginner-to-intermediate players. Each guide presents a suggested build and describes its abilities. You can try these out as-is, or use them as starting points to create your own. (Check out the previous guide here).

[h3]Characteristics[/h3]
This build is based around the Light Crossbow, which has strong burst damage that takes down small enemy groups quickly.

Full breakdown:

[h3]Equipment and Skills Used[/h3]



Adept’s Light Crossbow

• Explosive Bolt
  • Your Q is an area damage ability with a short cooldown
• Caltrops
  • Your W throws a trap that decreases enemy speed and increases your own
• Exploding Shot
  • This E-ability launches a bomb on your target that explodes after a short duration

Adept’s Scholar Cowl

• Energy Shield
  • Your Cowl has a defensive spell that decreases damage taken, and recovers energy for every hit taken, while active

Adept’s Cleric Robe

• Everlasting Spirit
  • The robe's active ability offers a shield upon taking damage that makes you invulnerable and increases your damage by 20% for 3 seconds

Adept’s Soldier Boots

• Wanderlust
  • Your shoes’ active ability is a charge-up movement skill that lets you escape from fights or chase down targets

Adept’s Shield: Passively increases defenses and CC-resistance

Adept’s Bag: Increases carry weight capacity

Adept’s Cape: Increases Energy and passive Energy Regeneration

Minor Poison Potion: Inflicts damage-over-time effect on targets and decreases their resistances for its duration

Catfish: Buff food that greatly increases Health Regeneration outside of combat, getting you back to full health quickly after clearing mobs

Journeyman’s Riding Horse: Brings you swiftly across the map while adding more carrying capacity



[h3]Build Pros and Cons[/h3]
Pros:

• Great burst damage
• Fast clear speed
• Good for small PvE groups
• Affordable

Cons:

• No additional mobility besides boots spell
• Not suited to large-scale fights

[h3]Playstyle[/h3]

• Your Q-spell is your bread and butter. With its low cooldown and high base damage, it’s great for clearing mobs. In between Qs you can use your W, E or auto attacks.
• Your W-ability throws a trap which doesn’t deal much damage but slows enemies, while boosting your movement speed. It’s on a low cooldown, allowing it to be used often. (This spell unlocks on Level 15 Crossbows, so you might have to defeat more mobs before you can use it.)
• Your E-ability, Exploding Shot, is a good starting ability that attaches a bomb to your target. This does little initial damage but explodes after 2 seconds, dealing more damage in a larger radius. If the target dies before the explosion, it does not deal area damage.
• Combining these skills with your passive, Well-Prepared, unlocks even more damage potential. To use it effectively, use your Q as the fourth spell. This immediately removes any cooldown from it and you’ll be able to use Q twice in quick succession. Since your Q has a short cooldown and you have additional abilities, you can cycle through multiple passive rotations quickly.
• When you’re low on Energy or need extra Energy, use your Cowl ability. For every hit taken you replenish some Energy while generally decreasing the damage you take.
• The Robe's strong defensive skill can be used to avoid damage. As long as you take damage in the 1.5 second window after activation, you receive an invulnerability shield making you immune to damage while increasing your damage output by 20% for 3 seconds.
• Your boots make up for your lack of mobility. They have a charge-up ability that offers escape from fights. While this allows you to cover large distances, it has a 1-minute cooldown.

That's it for this week - stay tuned for more Basic Builds guides coming soon!

Please note that there will be an extra maintenance on Albion East on Wednesday 29 March from 10-11 UTC.

In general, as patches must be deployed to both servers at the same time, this takes place outside the regular Albion East maintenance at 23:00 UTC.

The new Albion East server opened to players worldwide March 20, offering a Singapore-based server with an untouched version of Albion. The launch attracted throngs of new and old players to the server, and we're thrilled to see this new version of Albion take shape day-by-day. 

With the launch a success, Game Director Robin Henkys discusses what's next for the world of Albion in our newest Dev Talk (subtitles are available for all supported languages):

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h3]What's Next in the Short Term?[/h3]

• Rites of Spring event: Similar to 2022, but with a new, bad-tempered counterpart to the Spring Cottontail
• Beyond the Veil Content Patch: New features for the Mists, adjustments to the Roads of Avalon, usability improvements
• "Dungeons in the Mists": Central feature; will be discussed in a forthcoming Dev Talk
• After that: Next major content update

[h3]Albion's Development Strategy[/h3]
Albion has become quite large and complex, requiring a development strategy that allows us to maintain, improve and revolutionize the game at the same time.

Better Basics

Consistent improvement of core aspects of the game, especially where most impactful:

• Improved Marketplace experience: Repair All, Sell All, improved filtering and easier large-scale purchases
• More stable loot experience by optimizing Black Market
• Improving Stone market, reworking crafting capacity and crafting on player islands

Continuous Content

Expanding on features already in the game:

• New gear choices for the "You are what you wear" system
• Rites of Spring + Content Patch (both with new items)
• New Weapon Line for the Hunter tree

Fantastic Features

New features that expand the scope of Albion Online (these are always in flux, but a few are in progress):

• Legendary Weapons: Weapons can attain "Legendary" status through use, and be given a unique name; these have a chance of being added to the loot pool on death, thus leaving a lasting mark on Albion
• Improved spell behavior around walls and height differences: Precursor to proper castle and siege fights that may include player-made fortifications

That's it for today - stay tuned for more Dev Talks covering these themes and Albion’s next major update!