The Albion Europe Open Beta is now here, for anyone who wants to join! Until April 23, players can earn the new Duelist vanity set, play on a condensed version of Albion with massively buffed progress, and experience the new server before it officially launches - and it’s completely free to play. Read on for more details…
The Beta Challenge
In the Beta Challenge, you can unlock a brand-new, exclusive vanity set: the Duelist. This razor-sharp fighter is not available in any store, and once unlocked can be used on any server.
Performing open-world activities will grant players challenge points, which you can use to unlock each of the vanity items. The milestones for each item are as follows:
25,000 points: Duelist’s Boots
50,000 points: Duelist’s Cape
75,000 points: Duelist’s Hat
100,000 points: Duelist’s Armor
100,000 points and Founder Status: Duelist’s Lynx
At the same time, the Albion Europe Beta Season is running, giving guilds the opportunity to earn more unique rewards like custom guild logos and a custom season statue.
A Unique Experience
Players in the Albion Europe Beta receive a number of additional benefits to help them progress quickly through the stages of the game. These are:
Premium status for the whole beta
2000 Learning Points
+100% Fame from gathering, farming, and PvE
+200% Resources from gathering and fishing
+200% Silver from mobs
Resource weight reduced by 66%
The game world has a reduced scale, giving a unique, condensed version of Albion - the Royal Continent includes only the Highland and Steppe biomes, along with the city of Caerleon, while the Outlands is also considerably smaller than usual.
Please also note that the ingame store and Gold Market will be unavailable in the Beta.
The Albion Europe Open Beta runs until 10 UTC on April 23, so take this opportunity to experience a fresh rush on the new server, and earn your Duelist vanity set!
Crystal Weapons are Here!
The first Guild Season of 2024 has come to an end, and players are receiving the first Crystal Weapon artifacts from their Conqueror’s Chests! This means that across Albion those who earned these items through their season prowess can begin crafting, and fighting with, the first weapons in this new and prestigious series.
With that in mind, we thought we’d take a look at these three new weapons, to see what you can bring to the battlefields of Albion.
Infinity Blade
Infinity Blade is a Crystal Weapon in the Sword line, with the devastating Limitbreaker spell.
Limitbreaker lets your character rush at whirlwind speed towards your enemies, until you unleash two lethal swipes of the weapon. The first silences and damages your victim, while the second deals an additional dose of damage for good measure.
Rift Glaive
Rift Glaive is a Spear weapon which can decimate crowds with the Razor’s Edge spell.
Casting this spell drives your character forward into your enemies, knocking them back and dealing some serious damage. This damage increases the more Spirit Spear charges your character has, giving you the potential to unleash some serious devastation.
Astral Staff
For those who embrace the arcane arts, Astral Staff is an Arcane Staff Crystal Weapon, and its unique spell is the awe-inspiring Starfall.
Starfall calls down a shower of shooting stars around you, periodically inflicting magical damage on your adversaries. This celestial storm cannot be interrupted, and also increases your character’s Resilience Penetration as it imbues you with the power of the heavens.
The Foundations update on April 15 will introduce the next three Crystal Weapons: Arctic Staff (Frost Staff), Phantom Twinblade (Quarterstaff), and Crystal Reaper (Axe). Players can begin to earn the artifacts for those in Season 23, which also sees some huge developments arriving in the form of Fortifications, Siege Banners, and Territory Activity Chests. For some of the other changes coming to Guild Seasons, click here, and for a full season schedule, see this forum post.
Upcoming Guild Season Changes
The current Guild Season is reaching its climax, and it’s time to start preparing for the next. With the launch of the Albion Europe server on April 29, some significant changes are coming to the way seasons operate. Read on for an overview of these changes, so you can get ready to assemble your forces and fight your way to glory.
Season Names
Starting with the upcoming Guild Season, we’re simplifying the naming conventions for seasons across the three servers. For this reason, next season will be called Season 23 on all servers, avoiding a confusing situation where the season has a different name on each server.
Prime Times
With the launch of Albion Europe, we’re taking the opportunity to rework Prime Times across all three servers in order to better suit activity periods on each. Each server will now have six Prime Time slots (rather than seven), and the windows on Albion Americas are now more condensed, encouraging constant action from start to finish. Albion Europe’s Prime Times fit this pattern, covering ten hours in total.
Here is an overview of Prime Times across the servers (click to expand):
As you can see, Castle and Castle Outpost chests unlock one hour before each server’s Prime Time window, one hour after, and on every hour between Prime Times. With this in mind, the lock duration of Castle chests has been reduced from 120 to 60 minutes.
Additionally, it should be noted that World Bosses on Albion Asia will now spawn every even-numbered hour (UTC), to avoid colliding with the maintenance window.
Season Winner Statues
With three servers from Season 23 onwards, Season Winner Statues will be the same across all servers, and will no longer be designed by the guilds themselves but rather by the Sandbox Interactive art team.
With Fortifications, Siege Banners, and all the other changes coming to territory warfare with the Foundations update, Season 23 promises to be truly action-packed. For the season schedule and rewards, check out this forum post. See you on the battlefield!
Watch the Final Invasion Day of the Season
An exciting Guild Season is about to reach its conclusion, with the final Invasion Day is this weekend. And you can watch the denouement on AlbionTV as guilds struggle for their spot in the final rankings!
At 13:50 UTC on Saturday 6 April, hosts Robinhoodrs, Shozen, and Bogul will bring you coverage of the final round of invasions on Albion Asia. Then, at 17:50 UTC, Lewpac, Shozen, and Bogul will usher in the first round of invasions on Albion Americas. Finally, at 00:50 on Sunday 7 April, Robinhoodrs, Shozen, and Tazzik will be your hosts as the action ramps up with the second round of invasions on Albion Americas.
With the window to earn this season’s Crystal Weapon artifacts running out, and energy payouts coming up soon after Invasion Day, there’s a lot at stake out there. So tune in this weekend to watch the climax to this thrilling season!
Dev Talk: Fortifications
The Foundations update launches April 15, and promises to reshape warfare in Albion Online. At the heart of this update are three major new features coming to territories: Fortifications, Siege Banners, and Territory Activity Chests. In this Dev Talk ahead of their release, Game Director Robin Henkys sits down to give more information on these features, and what they’ll mean for the game going forward.
Fortification Upgrades
At the beginning of the next Guild Season, all territories will receive an updated layout:
There are five possible layouts
These offer different natural obstacles and possibilities for Fortification upgrades
Territories generate Fortification Points:
This starts at the beginning of each season
They reset at the end of each season
The amount generated in a territory depends on its Energy Level
Players with the “Manage Fortifications” guild right can use these to upgrade a territory’s Fortifications. There are three elements which can be upgraded: Guards, Walls, and Gates.
Guards
Clicking a guard opens the Upgrade UI for that group of guards:
This displays the cost and effects of upgrading
Once agreed to, the Silver is immediately taken from the guild account
The guard group then upgrades immediately
A guard group can only be upgraded once a day
Walls and Gates
Clicking a wall or gate will also display their upgrade group and UI:
This displays the cost and effects of upgrading
However, upgrades take effect after the following Prime Time
This ensures that walls and gates can’t be upgraded in response to a declared attack
During Prime Time, walls and gates prevent enemies from entering your territory:
Enemies need to break through these defenses with a Siege Hammer
Defenders can also use Siege Hammers to repair walls and gates
Upgraded walls and gates have more hit points, buying the defenders more time to repair them
Fortification Gates
Each gate has a crystal embedded in it, which allows defenders to teleport through the gate for a quick retreat:
Destroying the crystal removes this ability for the rest of the battle
Once the crystal is destroyed, the gate can take damage
Gates can be repaired, but crystals cannot
Gates can be opened:
By defenders with the “Open/Close Fortification Gates” permission
By attackers who are inside the gates
Defenders will therefore need to be careful when opening gates, as attackers can try to rush inside.
Siege Banners
Territories are shielded from attack by the Territory Crystal for most of the day. During Prime Time, however, this shielding can be weakened with new Siege Banners.
A banner can be raised by a player with a Siege Banner in their inventory, and the “Raise Siege Banner” permission.
If they do not have a previously declared attack, they will raise a Raid Banner, alerting the defending guild
If they do have a previously declared attack, they will raise a Conquest Banner
This must be raised in the first fifteen minutes of Prime Time
This significantly strengthens the territory’s guards
Either of these raised banners will degrade the territory’s Force Shield, allowing its walls and gates to take damage
There is a limit to how many players can attack a certain wall at any one time
Banners significantly change territory battles:
A raid or attack only ends when
The banner bearer reaches the territory tower and successfully channels
The defender kills the banner bearer, and controls the banner until it despawns
If the banner bearer leaves the proximity of the territory, the banner is dropped
If the attackers have not succeeded by the end of Prime Time, the defenders are declared victorious
Siege Banners ensure that territory battles actually happen during Prime Time. They also allow defenders to end an attack early, if they control the banner for long enough. And in the case of raids, there is a clear starting point, allowing defenders to rush to the territory.
After a battle, broken walls and gates, and killed guards, respawn. However, if a territory is conquered:
Its upgrades are destroyed
The spent Fortification Points are transferred to the new owners
This allows them to immediately begin upgrading
Fortification upgrades also reset on reset days, and at the end of each season. This facilitates a constant demand for stone in the economy, and means the system can be adjusted between seasons. The cost of upgrades is affected by the region’s quality level.
Territory Activity Chests
New Territory Activity Chests are also coming:
These are located next to the territory tower
They are filled each day at the beginning of Prime Time
PvE activity in the local and connected regions determines what they are filled with
Killing mobs, gathering, and fishing generate a chance of adding loot to the chest
The owning guild can claim this loot at the end of Prime Time. However, it can be looted by raiders who reach the tower beforehand, offering a further incentive to build strong Fortifications.
Fortifications, then, represent a significant change to territory warfare in Albion:
Guilds can strategize how to upgrade Fortifications
Attackers can formulate new tactics and builds to break through
Territory Activity Chests affect the attractiveness of territories, and how guilds respond to activity in their regions
This update is just the beginning of Fortifications, and opens the door to further development and expansion in the future. We can’t wait to see them begin to rise up at the start of the next season, along with all the other features coming with Foundations on April 15. See you then!
Arabic and Turkish are Coming to Albion Online!
We’re excited to announce that in the coming weeks Albion Online will be launched in two new languages: Turkish and Arabic! Players will be able to log in and play the game entirely in these two languages with both existing and new characters, on each server, and will also have access to language-specific in-game chat channels and dedicated subforums. The game will also feature right-to-left support when playing in Arabic.
Albion Online has long had passionate and dedicated Turkish and Arabic-speaking communities, and we couldn’t be happier to offer an improved gaming experience for these players. At the same time, we hope to see these communities grow further, making Albion an even richer and more vibrant gameworld for everyone!
Introducing Turkish and Arabic will be an ongoing process, particularly given the challenges of introducing a right-to-left display, and we will continue to optimize them after release. Our website will be available in these languages soon, with important news and information translated to keep you up-to-date. We look forward to hearing your feedback, and stay tuned for more on this exciting development soon!
Invasion Day is this Weekend
The first Guild Season since the Crystal Raiders update is in full swing, and players have been raiding territories, stealing Raw Energy, and working to earn Crystal Weapon artifacts. The first Invasion Day since the start of the season is this weekend, when territories will reset and guilds engage in fierce fights to claim ownership. And we’ll be broadcasting the action for you live on AlbionTV!
At 13:50 UTC on Saturday 10 February 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 11 February, Robinhoodrs, Shozen and Tazzik will present the second round of territory resets on Albion West. Tune in to catch the excitement!
For full season schedules and an overview of the changes that came with Crystal Raiders, see this forum post.
Get the Jousting Horse with a Single Referral!
A new Referral Season is here, and from now until February 29, you can claim the Jousting Horse with a single referral!
This mount skin transforms your Riding Horse base mount into a strong and regal steed, decked out in ceremonial livery. It comes in guild versions, too, letting you show off your current guild logo and colors as you ride into battle. And once unlocked, it can be used by any of your characters on that server.
As always, there are also 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 Jousting Horse!
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 February 29, so invite your friends today and enjoy these rewards!
The Carnival Challenge Returns
The Carnival Challenge is back! For the whole month of February, earn Challenge Points, unlock chests to get valuable loot, and claim your very own Saddled Terrorbird.
Join the Carnival
SADDLED TERRORBIRD: This month's Challenge brings back the charming, lightning-fast Saddled Terrorbird, a speedy mount that will carry you quickly across the lands of Albion. With an above-average base move speed and an additional invincibility/speed burst spell, it's the perfect ride for those who need to cover some ground quickly and safely.
AVATAR RING: Along with the Saddled Terrorbird, you'll unlock the Carnival Challenge Avatar Ring when you reach this month's Challenge Point goal. Give your avatar a colorful, festive look all year round! 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: Unlock weekly Carnival Challenge chests to get valuable rewards like Adventurer's Tomes, resources, and silver bags, along with a chance at carnival-themed Wardrobe Skins. You can also get three furniture items: the Carnival Firework, Carnival Arch, and Carnival Costume Cart.
Log in now and start gathering, fishing, farming, and killing monsters to earn Challenge Points and unlock your rewards!
Albion's vast open world is made up of hundreds of zones spanning five different biomes across two massive continents. It can all be a bit overwhelming, so we'll break it down with the following sections:
The Five Biomes
The Two Continents
Albion's Cities
Getting Around
Albion's Five Biomes
Albion's open-world zones fall under one of five biomes – Steppe, Forest, Swamp, Mountain, or Highlands – which determine which resources and creatures it contains. In addition to their own distinct visuals and terrain, each biome contains three of the five major natural resources:
Steppe: hide, fiber, ore
Forest: wood, hide, stone
Swamp: fiber, wood, hide
Mountain: ore, stone, fiber
Highlands: wood, stone, ore
Fish can be found in all five biomes
While the entire Royal Continent is divided evenly into five massive biome regions, the Outlands, in contrast, has biome "sub-regions" that change often from zone to zone. Each of the major biome zones on the Royal Continent has its own corresponding Starter Town and Royal City, with Caerleon at the center and not associated with any one biome.
The Royal Continent: The Heart of Albion
After you finish the tutorial (which takes place on its own separate mini-island), you'll be transported to the Royal Continent to start your adventure. The Royal Continent is Albion's massive southern landmass, and is home to the game's five Starter Towns (where you'll first land after the tutorial) and the six Royal Cities.
The Royal Continent contains blue, yellow, and redzones, but no black zones (see Zones and Flagging for more info). Thus, while full-loot PvP is possible, the 100% unflagged, always-hostile black-zone PvP is limited to the Outlands.
The Outlands: Albion's Wild Frontier
The Outlands is Albion's major northern landmass, accessed from the Royal Continent via five Realmgates in each of the five Royal Cities. All zones in the Outlands are black zones, meaning "winner takes all" rules apply, and any player can attack any other player with no reputation loss. The Outlands are where much of Albion's guild warfare takes place, with guilds battling over territories and placing Hideouts.
Alternate Realms
The open world of Albion includes realms that exist on alternate planes outside of mapped regions. These realms are unstable, and feature unpredictable zone connections, group size limitations, and varying entry/exit conditions.
Roads of Avalon: The Roads of Avalon are a network of hundreds of regions, accessed via portals that open at random throughout the open world. Once inside, Black Zone PvP rules apply and any portal found could lead to any part of Albion's open world – or further into the Roads – with no connection being permanent.
The Mists: A magical region that can be entered through short-lived portals. These areas do not correspond to any particular biome and can contain all resources. You can also find one-way connections to different parts of the world or a portal to the City in the Mists: Brecilien. The Mists also feature unique creatures found nowhere else, which have a chance to drop rare and valuable artifacts when defeated.
Albion's Cities and Towns
Starter Towns: Each major biome region on the Royal Continent is home to one of five "Starter Towns": Steppe Cross, Mountain Cross, Swamp Cross, Forest Cross, and Highlands Cross. These towns offer basic marketplaces and crafting/refining stations for players who are just starting out.
Royal Cities: Each of the five Royal Continent biome regions also corresponds to a Royal City:
Lymhurst (Forest)
Bridgewatch (Steppe)
Fort Sterling (Mountain)
Martlock (Highlands)
Thetford (Swamp)
A sixth city, Caerleon, sits at the center of the Royal Continent.
In addition to their own unique crafting and refining bonuses, the Royal Cities offer plots of land for sale, access to private and guild islands, local player-run marketplaces, the chance to join the city's Faction and fight in Albion's Faction Warfare system, and (with the exception of Caerleon) Realmgate access to the Outlands.
Rests (Outlands Towns): While the Outlands are generally wild and hostile, three small towns called Rests – Merlyn's Rest, Morgana's Rest, and Arthur's Rest – offer a chance to buy and sell goods, craft items, refine resources, and log off safely in the midst of Albion's most dangerous zones.
Getting Around Albion
On foot or mounted: The best way to see what Albion has to offer is to simply head out into the world, either on foot or on a trusty mount. Whether you have a destination in mind, or are just exploring, you're sure to encounter something new each time you set out. You'll generally want to bring a mount along for the added speed and carry weight they offer.
Fast travel: In Albion, fast travel is limited to specific destinations, and can only be initiated via the Travel Planner or Island Merchant NPCs. As trade and transport are essential parts of Albion's economy, fast travel to most destinations is only free when your inventory is completely empty, and becomes dramatically more expensive with each additional item.
Realmgates & Portal Towns: Each of the five Royal Cities has a Realmgate leading to a Portal Town that shares a Marketplace and a Bank with its corresponding city. These each then lead into a different part of the Outlands.
