In the still air of a fall night, a stable door creaks open. Across the hard earth, four steps can be heard, and silhouetted against the moonlight swings a cape. It must be… Horsferatu!
A new referral season has crept upon us, and from now until December 1 you can claim this brand-new mount skin when you bring some fresh blood to Albion (i.e. refer a friend). Transforming your Riding Horse base mount into the terrifying equine of legend with fanglike protrusions and blood-red saddle, you will descend upon your enemies with a ruthless determination. And once you’ve unlocked this fearsome beast it can be used by all characters on your account. Hissss!
The current referral season lasts until maintenance on December 1, so refer a friend now and claim your rewards!
How to Earn Seasonal Referral Rewards
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.
The Harvest Challenge is Back!
Fall has come to the world of Albion... the shadows are growing longer... and the Harvest Challenge is back! For the entire month of October, earn points for open-world activities, unlock chests to get spooky loot, and claim your very own Spectral Bat.
Reap What You Sow
SPECTRAL BAT: This month's Challenge offers another chance to claim the amazing Spectral Bat. In addition to its spooky appearance, this winged menace comes with a powerful Flicker spell that allows you to jump to a target location in the blink of an eye. (Note: like all mounts, the Spectral Bat cannot fly over obstacles or gaps.)
AVATAR RING: Adventurers who rack up enough total Challenge Points will also earn the Harvest Challenge Avatar Ring, featuring a pair of eerie, grinning skeletons. 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 point totals to unlock Harvest Challenge Chests. Along with valuable rewards like Adventurer's Tomes, Silver, resources, and other loot, you'll also have a chance to unlock six seasonal furniture items: the Scary Pumpkin Lantern, Friendly Pumpkin Lantern, Halloween Lantern, Halloween Cauldron, Halloween Scarecrow, and Halloween Pyre.
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!
The new Priest Vanity Bundle is here! This premiere bundle is available in the ingame store, and includes a full costume set plus a matching Ethereal Horse Mount Skin for your Riding Horse base mount.
The bundle will imbue your character with a bright, ethereal aura to bring healing and strength to those who stand beside you. With ethereal white robes and a mystical glowing headpiece, you will bring courage to your allies and send the forces of darkness scattering in fear. The bundle also includes a skin for your Riding Horse base mount to transform it into the inspiring Ethereal Horse, a mythical mount from a higher realm that will transport you safely through Albion's darkest lands.
The Priest Bundle includes the following vanity skins, which work on male and female characters alike:
Priest's Hood
Priest's Robe
Priest's Boots
Priest's Cape
Ethereal Horse (Requires any Riding Horse base mount)
As with past bundles, you can use all costume and mount skins with all characters on your account, and they are never lost or destroyed. All items will be unlocked in the ingame "Appearance" menu after purchase.
Get this premiere bundle today and bring light to the lands of Albion!
Season 17 Starts Saturday
Albion’s seventeenth Guild Season starts Saturday, and brings some important changes to the Crystal Arena, open-world chests, Headquarters Hideouts, and more. Read on for details, or click here for the complete Season 17 schedule.
Crystal Arena Ranking Changes
From Season 17 there will be additional substeps in the Crystal Arena ranking system. While the amount of Ranking Points needed to reach maximum rank remains the same, there will be extra steps between the ranks (Iron III, Iron IV, etc.) As a result, there are now more Chests available for ranking up in a Crystal Arena Season. Additionally, Arena rankings will not fully reset, but instead players will be partially ranked down at the start of the next Season. For example, Crystal Rank players will start at Silver I. All upranking rewards that are skipped will be received in an in-game mail.
Headquarters Hideouts Changes
Headquarters boosters are no longer obtained at the end of the season; instead, each guild will always start with a booster. Guilds must still meet the Season Points threshold to use their booster. Using the booster, though, will now trigger a 90-day cooldown. These changes should make it much easier for new guilds to establish a Headquarters Hideout in the Outlands..
Open-World Chests and Crystal Spiders
Large open-world treasure chests will contain more valuable loot, but will spawn less frequently to make this content rarer, more desirable, and more competitive for groups.
Small open-world treasure chests will take three minutes to unlock instead of five, making it less likely that organized groups form and giving solo players a better chance to fight over them.
Additionally, Regular Chests will also be slightly more valuable overall, making these open-world objectives more rewarding for all players.
Crystal Spider Might Levels will be adjusted, with levels much easier to attain. As a result, each Crystal Spider will indirectly give significantly more Season Points, making them more attractive season objectives. Guild Levels for Hellgates and Corrupted Dungeons will also be easier to reach, allowing guilds to progress faster through these activities.
Season Schedule Changes
This season will be one week shorter than most. However, the final three weeks of the season will offer triple Season Points from Territories and triple Might and Favor from Siphoning Mages.
Quality-of-Life Improvements
Corrupted Dungeons: After defeating another player or getting banished, players will now be able to immediately enter a new dungeon or exit into the open world. This allows players who are interested purely in the PvP aspect of this content to directly start another invasion without needing to clear their own dungeon first.
Guild Season Rewards: In order to receive guild rewards, players must now again be a member of the qualifying guild for at least 75% of the season. Qualifying time spent with a guild will be easily visible in a new UI.
Unlock the Ancient Ent
Players who gain enough Might will receive unique Avatar Sets, as well as the Ancient Ent and valuable Fame Buffs. Might is earned through a huge range of activities in the Conqueror's Challenge, and there are additional bracket rewards for guilds who reach at least Iron Rank. And as always, the season's number-one guild will become a permanent part of the world of Albion with their very own statue in Conquerors' Hall.
Watch the Season Kickoff Live
The season kickoff on Saturday, September 17 will be broadcast live on AlbionTV starting at 17:30 UTC, with hosts Shozen, Lewpac and Bogul bringing full coverage of Invasion Day.
At 18:00 UTC all territories will be reset for guilds to claim. Those in the North and South American time zones can tune in for the second round of territory resets on Sunday at 00:30 UTC, when hosts Shozen, Robinhoodrs and Tazzik cover the next round of invasions. All open-world fights are broadcast live with a 15-minute delay.
Check out AlbionTV's coverage of the last Invasion Day here:
Into the Fray Patch 6 is here! This patch brings Japanese and Italian language support, introduces a brand-new Guild Finder, and more. Read on for a summary…
Japanese and Italian Added
This patch expands Albion Online’s supported languages to include Japanese and Italian, with the game now fully playable in both of these languages. It also includes dedicated in-game chat channels for each language, and new language-specific subforums. All articles and patchnotes will now be translated into these languages to keep you fully updated, and if you wish to change the language in which you receive our newsletters you can update this in your Account Settings].
We hope to make playing Albion Online a more immersive and user-friendly experience for our existing Japanese and Italian-speaking players. And to those who are joining the game for the first time now: welcome!
Guild Finder
Along with new languages, this patch brings a massive new quality-of-life improvement: a brand-new Guild Finder!
Players will be able to search for a specific guild by name, or browse guilds by filters such as language, time zone and activity. And if you’re a guild member looking to recruit, you can set criteria by which players can easily find you and apply for membership - or join directly if you prefer. This feature will help beginners and experienced players alike to team up and access Albion’s high-level content together. Please note that the Guild Finder wil not be available immediately, but we'll announce once it's fully up and running.
Guild Season Changes
Albion’s seventeenth Guild Season is coming September 17, with some important changes. The Crystal Arena ranking system will include more substeps than previously, and players will no longer rank down completely at the end of a season. Headquarters Hideouts boosters will be more easily accessible to guilds, making it easier for new guilds to establish an Outlands HQ. Open-world Treasure Chests will generally contain greater loot, in order to make them more rewarding for all players. And additionally, there will be quality-of-life improvements to Corrupted Dungeons and the Guild Rewards system.
For full details of the Season 17 changes and rewards, see this forum post.
Rock Paper Shotgun has released their list of the 30 best Steam Deck games out there, and Albion Online is included! Hardware Editor James Archer praised the game's playability and streamlined controls on the console:
"Playable MMOs are in short supply on the Steam Deck, whether it be down to anti-cheat software refusing to shake Proton’s hand or complex controls that just can’t go without a keyboard. Nevertheless, I was impressed by how the free-to-play Albion Online adapts to the Steam Deck’s inputs and screen. One or two button presses can handle a full loadout of items and spells, and if using a trackpad to direct the mouse cursor doesn’t feel quite right, you can just prod the touchscreen instead."
You can read the full article here, and check out this dedicated subforum to stay up-to-date on ongoing optimizations for overall controller support.
Dev Talk: Development Update
It's been a while since our last Dev Talk, and many of you have been eagerly awaiting updates. In our newest video, Game Director Robin Henkys introduces some of the major new features coming to Albion with the next content update, including changes to the Roads of Avalon, a massive new feature called the Mists, and a new line of artifacts for trade and crafting.
Prefer a written summary? Then read on…
Roads of Avalon Changes
Following player feedback, the Roads of Avalon are set to receive a rework in our next major update:
Roads will be focused on small group gameplay
It will be easier to establish a Hideout in the Roads, but more difficult to control an entire Hideout region
It will be more difficult to control high-value zones, making Roads exploration more competitive and exciting
Rewards will focus more on group gameplay and enemies that upgrade over time
The Roads will also receive a visual update
The Mists
The Mists will be a brand-new environment with its own gameplay possibilities:
Accessed via a network of unpredictable and temporary connections, like the Roads
Each entrance will only allow a single player to enter before it disappears
A single Mists region will have multiple entrances, allowing for chance encounters between solo players
Gameplay will be a mixture of solo PvE and solo PvP, with an emphasis on exploration and risk-taking
Visually and thematically will be the most magical area of Albion so far, with all-new music
New Artifacts and Items
Within the Mists players can encounter a new range of fantastical creatures
These drop new artifacts that can be used to craft brand-new items
The items needed to craft these new items are unique to these creatures in the Mists, adding new dimensions to trading, crafting, and PvE
The City in the Mists
A new City exists within the Mists, acting as a hub for trading and other activities:
This City has no fixed, physical location, but can be said to ‘drift’ in the Mists
Entrances can sometimes be found in the Mists and the Roads, but not all will be able to enter
This City will offer instant access to the Roads, Mists, and other forms of small-scale content that can be encountered elsewhere
It will serve as an ideal base for advanced solo and small group adventurers
We hope you enjoyed this glimpse at some of the forthcoming features we’re working on, and we can’t wait for you to try them out and discover exciting new ways to play. We’ll be going into further detail about these in future Dev Talks - and until then, see you in Albion!
A Force of Light is Approaching
As Albion heads into the darker part of the year, one force stands against the shadows, bringing an aura of brightness to all who cast eyes upon it. In a land of danger, beset by demons and fire, there are those who cast light into the darkest corners and offer hope to their allies. Will you heed the call and become a force of good, standing against evil?
Spread the light with a new vanity set for all your characters, coming next week!
The Crystal League Championship Starts Saturday
The wait is almost over: the Crystal League Championship is this weekend! Starting Saturday at 17:00 UTC, tune in to AlbionTVto 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 Sabertooth 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 10: 17:00 - 20:45 UTC
Sunday, September 11: 17:00 - 21:45 UTC
This CLC is the first that will be open to players from both the Lethal and Non-Lethal Leagues, and matches will be hard-capped and full-loot. 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 Heretic Challenge Returns
The chill of fall is beginning to creep into the air... and the Heretic Challenge is back! For the entire month of September, earn points for open-world activities, unlock chests to get valuable loot, and claim your very own Heretic Combat Mule.
Mighty Mules and Heretic Decor
HERETIC COMBAT MULE: This month's Challenge brings back the Heretic Combat Mule, a war machine from the twisted minds of Heretic saddlers. The Combat Mule fires a powerful cannon shot that knocks back and slows targets, but watch out for its massive recoil!
AVATAR RING: Adventurers who rack up enough total Challenge Points will also earn the Heretic Challenge avatar ring. This non-tradable item permanently unlocks this crazed, ramshackle avatar border for one character, or can be traded to the Vanity Merchant for one Adventurer's Token.
SEASONAL SPECIALS: All month long, reach weekly goals to unlock Heretic Challenge Chests. In addition to valuable rewards like Adventurer's Tomes, Silver, and resources, you'll also have a chance to unlock special furniture items like the Heretic Lantern, Heretic Junkpile and Heretic Scarecrow.
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 rewards. So log in, head out into the open world, gather points, and claim these rewards while they last!
