Design Notes

January 31, 2023

Nulgath's 2023 Birthday Collection Update

Unlock 180+ rare items in Nulgath's Birthday Collection

Nulgath’s birthday celebration continues this weekend, and we want everyone to get in on the /party! For all you real-life rare hunters, the final update to the Nulgath 2023 Collection Chest is here! Log in now to find the newest additions to the Nulgath 2023 Collection Chest in Battleon, featuring Nulgath's DoomFiend set. Get all of the 2023 event rare gear (over 180 items) + a character page badge for 10,000 ACs.

This week we added:

• Enchanted Void + Nation Ritualist sets (color-customizable)*
• Nation Ritualist's Sigils + Chthonic Fiend Claws Gauntlets
• Chthonic Fiend Slayer set
• Parasitic NecroFiend set
• Parasitic Necro Nymph pet

Plus, find all of the gear released last week in the Nulgath's Collection Chest:

• DoomFiend of Nulgath (crafted for you by legendary artist, Nulgath)
• Abyssal Reaver set
• Nation Phalanx + Lancer sets
• Crystallized Void Vanguard set
• Immortal Void General set
• Revontheus Legacy, Fabled Legacy, and One-Winged sets
• NULLB0rg set
• Messenger + Samurai of Abbadon sets
• ShadowScythe Fiend of Nulgath set
• Phalanx, Nation, and Revontheus Legacy ground runes
• Plus additional pets, weapons and more!

If you buy the chest this week, the items from last week will be automatically included to your chest. You can also buy individual items from Nubble the Makai in Battleon.

*  Non color-customizable variants of this set will be available as reward farming gear in this week's release of the birthday story.

Just want a couple of the items listed above? Apart from the exclusive pets, all of the gear contained inside the Nulgath 2023 Collection chest will also be available to buy individually in Nubble's shop.

Read on for important information

A few important tips to remember:

• All of this year's event rare items will be available individually from the birthday rares shop in Battleon until February 24th, 2023.
• In order to prevent shop abuse, the Collection Chest pet and Badge Quest pet cannot be sold.

Nulgath's Seasonal Birthday Shop Returns

Find Nulgath's seasonal birthday shop is full of dark and deadly gear. These sets will return every year for his birthday, as our way of helping all his fans celebrate! Find the shop in your Game Menu until February 24th. 

Nulgath's seasonal Birthday Shop features:

• Forsaken Fiend armor set*
• Void Rebirth armor set
• Void Awakening armor set
• Shielded variants of both armors
• Nulgath's Bounty Hunter Drone Pet (with two quests)
• Nulgath's Birthday Gift Pet (with one quest)

*New armor set added this year.

January 30, 2023

Monday Updates

Updates and a Mystery Item Hunt?

Haii, its Yoshino here! (under the Alina disguise... shhh) to get all of the wonderful news updates out. But first, let's start with an update on a few one-time-only quest items:

The following items will also now drop from monsters:

Ground Chunks (House item)

• Now Drops from Heart of Chaos in /lagunabeach

Death Pit Sword (Tier 1)

• Now drops from Drakel Gladiator in /deathpit

Death Pit Sword (Tier 2)

• Now drops from Drakel Gladiator in /deathpit 

Call of Hope

• Now drops from Viridi in /pyramidpain

Mini Energy Tornado

• Now drops from Energy Tornado in /airstorm

Skull-Poms

• Now drops from Level 15 Shelletons 

Glowing Crown Blade

• Now drops from Doomwood Soldier in /doomwood, /necrotower, /necru, /temple

Primitive Bone Axe

• Now drops from Doomwood Soldier in /doomwood, /necrotower, /necru,/ temple 

Fabled Chopper

• Now drops from Earth Elemental in /fableforest 

Elders' Blood (Potions)

• Now stacks up to 20 

Mystery Item Hunt!?!!

Alright fine, since you've made it this far - here's a hint: A monster tainted by ShadowFlame drops this adorable little guy who comes along with a quest to obtain his armor set. Good luck searching!

January 27, 2023

Nulgath's Birthday Part 2

New Birthday Rares, Farming Rewards, and Story!

Log in now to dive deeper into the Temple of Light and its secrets. Exterminate the DOOM that infests the stolen member's of the Nulgath's Nation. The rewards will be fiendish!

Login in this weekend and /join templedelve to begin your adventure!

• Talk to Nulgath to begin hunting a Mysterious Stranger into the depths of the Temple of Light.
• Battle Delirious Elementals and the DOOM-possessed members of the Nation.
• Learn about the secret machinations of the followers of Light.
• Discover who the new enemies of the Nation, the Legion, and the Shadowscythe will be

New Item Updates and a New Nulgath Quest?!

Some changes during the week happened with the Void Beetle Warlord armor and many other new additions with this week's release. Read this Design Notes post for a full list of what's been changed.

2021 Event: Nulgath Origin Story

Nulgath the ArchFiend, lord of the OverSoul, has conquered many worlds and slaughtered millions, ruling over a a Nation of deadly fiends and warriors. But he was not ALWAYS one of our world's supreme Evil Overlords. Nulgath was human once... until he met his Master, Adimonde. This weekend, log in and battle as Nulgath and discover how he became the ArchFiend he is today.

/join originul to begin your adventure:

• Discover how Nulgath unlocks the power he wields today
• Fight to escape Inquisitors
• Enter a realm of darkness and energy... and survive your training
• Battle fiends to prove your skill and leadership
• Defeat the Fiend Champion of Adimonde to become his heir

Then take on the ArchFiend’s forces as you battle through his fortress. Your mission: destroy the Fiend Shard and save the OverSoul!

/join fiendshard to continue the adventure:

• Scout through Nulgath's fortress and battle fiendish guards
• Locate the Key Fragments to progress
• Defeat a filthy, fiendish miniboss
• Destroy the Fiend Shard

• Fiend Champion of Adimonde
• Evolved Worshipper of Nulgath
• Arcane Warfiend of Nulgath

2020 Event: Mystery of Crag

Nulgath the ArchFiend, lord of the OverSoul, has gathered around him many followers, creatures, and allies over the centuries. This weekend, as we celebrate Nulgath’s birthday once more, log in and battle to uncover more information about one of his mysteriously silently minions, the sentient Rock Beast known only as… Crag.

Talk to Bamboozle in /cragglerock to begin your quest. Collect special gems for his best boulder bud to earn the special gear that only a powered-up Crag can create.

Complete Bamboozle's quests to reawaken (or at least... partially /heal) Crag to collect stones for his merge shop and to rank up the new CraggleRock faction.

And if you're a true member of Nulgath's Nation, you'll want to find Lae in the /tercessuinotlim zone! He's got a bounty of new gear for you... IF you can pay his price. All crafted by Yo Lae for members of Nulgath's Nation to celebrate the ArchFiend's birthday!

Casparilla's Fiendish Reward Quests

If you're a fan of Nulgath's Nation, you're no stranger to hard work... or almost-tortuous quests. This weekend, log in and /join citadel. Find Casparilla... because she's got some games for you to play while Nulgath's away. And if you know ANYTHING about Nulgath, you know that the only Court Jester he'd keep is a crazy-loyal and just plain INSANE trickster.

Complete Casparilla's quests to unlock the pieces of the 0 AC Elite Void armor set from AQW Community Artist, Reki Roland. Hardcore Nation fans can also complete Casparailla's SUPER evil bonus quests to get two exclusive swords and a floating sword pet.

Not sure who Nulgath is? Read on!

Nulgath the ArchFiend is the in-game persona for Nulgath-the-team-member, one of AQWorlds' original artists. Though he no longer works regularly for Artix Entertainment, his art style (prevalent in early AQW and featured in Oversoul) and the character itself remain hugely popular with many of our long-time heroes. To recognize their dedication and the love they feel for his character and art style, we hold an event in-game each year to celebrate

>:::)

January 23, 2023

Monday Afternoon Updates + More!

Frostval 2022 Gifting Additions from this weekend

It has been a pretty crazy end to 2022 and start for the new year. We released SO much last month, and so many real-life issues + emergencies arose, that our normal production schedule saw some significant delays. I apologize for all of them; we're working as hard as we can to get everything out as quickly as possible. But because so many of you were so eager to get your rewards, we released what we had ready. Last week, we released MOST of the Frostval 2022 AC Gifting rewards + character page badges.*

Here's what's still left to come:

• Tier 7: House + Holiday Mirror Gravelyn houseguest 
• Tier 7: Holiday Mirror Gravelyn Bank Buddy
• All tiers: House item versions of your Moglin Giftbox pets
• All Tiers: Badges added in the Book of Lore

Character Page Badges

In the Gifting Design Notes, we noted that there would be one badge per tier (not that all previous badges would be unlocked). With as many tiers as there are, giving players the highest tier lets you display your generosity without overloading the character page. 

Tiers 1- 7 all unlocked a Unique Moglin Giftbox pet w/ quest for House Item, a unique character page badge, and other rewards. In addition to their exclusive prize packs, any hero that donates at least 5,000 ACs (Tier 2) automatically unlocked all of the merge shop items in their Book of Lore badge shop at the end of the gifting event.

4:30 PM update

This weekend, we released the character page badges and only showed the highest tier you'd gotten for the reason above. But after seeing how many people so badly wanted ALL of the character page badges (especially as they all had unique art), in the spirit of the holiday and reason for the badges... we've updated character pages to follow last year's model.

Now you'll see all of the character page badges for the tiers you've unlocked. I thought the Design Notes had been clearly worded, in that you'd only unlock the highest tier. But based on how many comments we got from players who didn't realize that, it's clear we just... weren't clear enough! 

Thursday Update?!?

Shhh.. Yoshino taking over this post with Alina currently on a delayed Christmas, i'm here to inform you all that the Gifting Tier 4-7* House* Items have arrived in addition to the Holiday Mirror Gravelyn Items. Their Badge art in the book of lore has also been updated. 

Here's what's still left to come:

• All tiers: House item versions of your Moglin Giftbox pets

* From a previous copy and paste error in the tiers, The Frostval Brightrise Fortress House wasn't intended to include a Hair/Armor Customizer... Read on for more information!

9:00 AM Update

We've renamed the Doom Fiend of Nulgath items to be ShadowScythe Fiend of Nulgath to avoid confusion with the DoomFiend of Nulgath Set.

9:30 PM Update

The Frostval Brightrise Fortress has been updated with an few extra rooms and a Hair/Armor Customizer Room. You may need to re-equip the house to see the extra rooms added.

January 20, 2023

Nulgath's Birthday Returns

New Birthday Rares, Farming Rewards, and Story!

Log in now to defend the Temple of Light from an unexpected attack by Nulgath's minions. Investigate this betrayal of the Alliance and reap the rewards. Then return this Friday for Part 2!

Login in this weekend and /join templesiege to begin your adventure!

• Talk to Carnage to begin the quests to discover just what's going on
• Battle Light Elementals and Overdriven Paladins
• Discover just how DOOM came to invade the Temple of Light

Pet Quests + Reward Sets

You asked... and we answered! Log in this weekend to find two new farming pets + their related reward sets. 

1. Unlock Void Beetle General's Pet from the merge shop
2. Complete its quest to unlock all the 0 AC Void Beetle General's gear 
3. Evolve the pet into the Void Beetle Warlord's Pet 
4. Complete its quest to unlock all the Warlord's gear, too!

2021 Event: Nulgath Origin Story

Nulgath the ArchFiend, lord of the OverSoul, has conquered many worlds and slaughtered millions, ruling over a a Nation of deadly fiends and warriors. But he was not ALWAYS one of our world's supreme Evil Overlords. Nulgath was human once... until he met his Master, Adimonde. This weekend, log in and battle as Nulgath and discover how he became the ArchFiend he is today.

/join originul to begin your adventure:

• Discover how Nulgath unlocks the power he wields today
• Fight to escape Inquisitors
• Enter a realm of darkness and energy... and survive your training
• Battle fiends to prove your skill and leadership
• Defeat the Fiend Champion of Adimonde to become his heir

Then take on the ArchFiend’s forces as you battle through his fortress. Your mission: destroy the Fiend Shard and save the OverSoul!

/join fiendshard to continue the adventure:

• Scout through Nulgath's fortress and battle fiendish guards
• Locate the Key Fragments to progress
• Defeat a filthy, fiendish miniboss
• Destroy the Fiend Shard

• Fiend Champion of Adimonde
• Evolved Worshipper of Nulgath
• Arcane Warfiend of Nulgath

2020 Event: Mystery of Crag

Nulgath the ArchFiend, lord of the OverSoul, has gathered around him many followers, creatures, and allies over the centuries. This weekend, as we celebrate Nulgath’s birthday once more, log in and battle to uncover more information about one of his mysteriously silently minions, the sentient Rock Beast known only as… Crag.

Talk to Bamboozle in /cragglerock to begin your quest. Collect special gems for his best boulder bud to earn the special gear that only a powered-up Crag can create.

Complete Bamboozle's quests to reawaken (or at least... partially /heal) Crag to collect stones for his merge shop and to rank up the new CraggleRock faction.

And if you're a true member of Nulgath's Nation, you'll want to find Lae in the /tercessuinotlim zone! He's got a bounty of new gear for you... IF you can pay his price. All crafted by Yo Lae for members of Nulgath's Nation to celebrate the ArchFiend's birthday!

Casparilla's Fiendish Reward Quests

If you're a fan of Nulgath's Nation, you're no stranger to hard work... or almost-tortuous quests. This weekend, log in and /join citadel. Find Casparilla... because she's got some games for you to play while Nulgath's away. And if you know ANYTHING about Nulgath, you know that the only Court Jester he'd keep is a crazy-loyal and just plain INSANE trickster.

Complete Casparilla's quests to unlock the pieces of the 0 AC Elite Void armor set from AQW Community Artist, Reki Roland. Hardcore Nation fans can also complete Casparailla's SUPER evil bonus quests to get two exclusive swords and a floating sword pet.

Not sure who Nulgath is? Read on!

Nulgath the ArchFiend is the in-game persona for Nulgath-the-team-member, one of AQWorlds' original artists. Though he no longer works regularly for Artix Entertainment, his art style (prevalent in early AQW and featured in Oversoul) and the character itself remain hugely popular with many of our long-time heroes. To recognize their dedication and the love they feel for his character and art style, we hold an event in-game each year to celebrate

>:::)

Class Update: Arachnomancer Changes + more

Significant reworks to better align the class’s damage types, desired stats, and give it a playstyle. Cooldowns were significantly reduced overall, making the class play much faster. Original niches have not significantly changed, but the class now functions as a strong mid-game high dodge solo class that can scale into early endgame. 

This class presented an interesting challenge in design- it was already strong (if underappreciated), and aligning its damage types and stat model would have made it far too powerful. A light redesign gave it a new way to play while still being usable the same way it was before, allowing it to now function with 100%+ dodge, and encouraging more interaction from the player.

Read this Design Notes post for a full list of what's been changed, what's been fixed, and stay up to date! 

January 20, 2023

Nulgath's 2023 Birthday Collection

Unlock 180+ rare items in Nulgath's Birthday Collection

Nulgath’s birthday celebration begins this weekend, and we want everyone to get in on the /party! For all you real-life rare hunters, the Nulgath 2023 Collection Chest is here! Log in now to find the Nulgath 2023 Collection Chest in Battleon, featuring Nulgath's new DoomFiend set. Get all of the 2023 event rare gear (over 180 items) + a character page badge for 10,000 ACs.

• Get the full collection for 10,000 ACs (over 50,000 ACs worth of gear) or
• Buy individual items from Nubble's Rares shop in Battleon 

This week, Nulgath's Collection Chest pet unlocks 146 items, including:

• ArchFiend's Collection Chest 2023 (with a quest for the exclusive character page badge)
• DoomFiend of Nulgath (crafted for you by legendary artist, Nulgath)
• Abyssal Reaver set
• Nation Phalanx + Lancer sets
• Crystallized Void Vanguard set
• Immortal Void General set
• Revontheus Legacy, Fabled Legacy, and One-Winged sets
• NULLB0rg set
• Messenger + Samurai of Abbadon sets
• ShadowScythe Fiend of Nulgath set
• Phalanx, Nation, and Revontheus Legacy ground runes
• Plus additional pets, weapons and more!

And even more items will be added on January 27th:

• Empowered Void + Nation Ritualist sets (color-customizable)*
• Nation Ritualist's Sigils + Chthonic Fiend Claws Gauntlets
• Chthonic Fiend Slayer set
• Parasitic NecroFiend set
• Parasitic Necro Nymph pet

If you buy the chest this week, the items above will be automatically added to your chest. You can also buy individual items from Nubble the Makai in Battleon.

*  Non color-customizable variants of this set will be available as reward farming gear in Part 2 of the birthday story.

Just want a couple of the items listed above? Apart from the exclusive pets, all of the gear contained inside the Nulgath 2023 Collection chest will also be available to buy individually in Nubble's shop.

Read on for important information

A few important tips to remember:

• All of this year's event rare items will be available individually from the birthday rares shop in Battleon until February 24th, 2023.
• In order to prevent shop abuse, the Collection Chest pet and Badge Quest pet cannot be sold.

Nulgath's Seasonal Birthday Shop Returns

Find Nulgath's seasonal birthday shop is full of dark and deadly gear. These sets will return every year for his birthday, as our way of helping all his fans celebrate! Find the shop in your Game Menu until February 24th. 

Nulgath's seasonal Birthday Shop features:

• Void Rebirth armor set
• Void Awakening armor set
• Shielded variants of both armors
• Nulgath's Bounty Hunter Drone Pet (with two quests)
• Nulgath's Birthday Gift Pet (with one quest)

Plus, a new set will be added next Friday, January 27th!

January 13, 2023

Aurelio Voltaire's The Black Labyrinth

Aurelio Voltaire Returns for an all-new Friday the 13th Event!

Friday the 13th has returned once again… but we don't have any horror movie villains or armies of the undead for you to tackle tonight. This weekend, Aurelio Voltaire returns with something incredibly special for you and our community of videogamers; he's got a new tale to tell, one near and dear to his heart. This weekend, log in and /join blackmazehub to begin an adventure inspired by his new album: "The Black Labyrinth!"

• WHO: Gothic Musician Aurelio Voltaire, the AQWorlds Team + your fellow Heroes
• WHAT: Battle through the Black Labyrinth, an adventure inspired by Aurelio Voltaire's newest album
• WHEN: RIGHT NOW!
• WHERE: www.AQ.com

/join blackmazehub and talk to Aurelio Voltaire in-game to begin your journey. But first, a message from our favorite Gothic Musician just for you: 

"Behind this door in particular is an introduction to a world near and dear to my heart. I worked alongside musicians who performed and composed with David Bowie to create the songs in my album; The Black Labyrinth. There's a story those songs tell, and I would love for you to have a glimpse of the people and places that come alive in this musical tale." - Aurelio Voltaire

Fantastical Reward Gear

After you complete tonight's event, talk to the mysteriously familiar-looking Valarian.  Complete his quest to collect Zenobia's Moglinberry Juice. You'll be able to trade it for dark and lovely new reward sets. 

Valarian's merge shop includes:

• The Harvester armor
• 3 Harvester set helms
• 7 Harvester set weapons
• Goblin King's Formalwear (regular and gender-reversed)
• 2 Goblin King's helms
• 1 L'il Dewdo pet
• Mystical Glass Orb Wand
• Zenobia's Berrystain Splash ground rune

Battle the monsters in the Black Labryrinth to collect:

• 2 Harvester set helms
• 2 Goblin King set helms
• Mogchita pet
• The King Transformed pet
• 3 Harvester set weapons
• Mystical Glass Orb Mace + Dagger
• L'il Dewdo On Your Back cape
• 4 Harvester set capes

Friday the 13th Featured Rare Gear

It wouldn't be Friday the 13th without new rare gear to commemorate the event -- and this week, our dark artists have channeled misfortune and mayhem to craft the NightStalker Guise and the Oracle of Misfortune sets in your Featured Gear Shop until Friday, February 10th.

NightStalker Set

• 1 armor
• 6 helms
• 6 capes
• Potion Pet
• NightStalker's Sword, GreatSword, ManSlayer
• 2 Polearms
• Altar of the NightStalker house item*

Oracle of Misfortune set

• 2 armors
• 5 helms
• 3 capes
• 6 weapons
• 3 house items*

The house items can be found in the Holiday House Shop in your game menu.

Final Weekend: 50% More AC Bonus

This is the FINAL weekend for our Holiday AdventureCoin bonus! Get 50% more ACs until next Friday, January 20th. If you're excited for Nulgath's Birthday collection (arriving next week), now's the time to top up your AC stash! 

Friday the 13th: The Eternally Dark Holiday

What is undead can never die… Not when there is always another Friday the 13th. ALL heroes can now /join Voltairetown to battle through all our previous Friday the 13th seasonal events.

And don't miss the rest of this month's update. See the full release lineup here: AdventureQuest Worlds calendar.

Aurelio Voltaire Returns for Friday the 13th!

Friday the 13th and Aurelio Voltaire go together like Evil Armies of Undead and Horror Movies. He is legitimately one of the most creative people we know. He is the maker of music, films, books, comics, toys and... mayhem. He first appeared in AdventureQuest Worlds back in 2009, during our first-ever in-game Friday the 13th UNLIVE event! Since then, he's appeared in all of our Friday the 13th events, and this year he made his first appearance in AdventureQuest 3D's "Return to Skullpunch Island."

This weekend, battle your enemies to the beat of his Black Labyrinth tracks! The event features: "Song for a Goblin King," "Oubliette," "The King of Villains," and "Kill the Beast." Stay up to date with all his music, art, and news updates here and once you've finished the event, make sure you check out his Youtube series, "Gothic Homemaking with Aurelio Voltaire." 

While you battle, you can also stream all the tracks from the album here! 

On behalf of the entire AdventureQuest Worlds team, we want to thank Aurelio Voltaire for being a part of this special event! 

Leaving Soon: mark your calendars

Darkness.  Destruction. And madness are all happening this month in AdventureQuest Worlds! Don't miss a moment, a battle, or a limited time reward. 

Friday, January 20: 50% holiday AC bonus ends

Friday, January 27: 

• New Year's Eve zones leave
• New Year's Rare gear leaeves

Friday, February 17: Nulgath 2023 Birthday Collection leaves

Daily Gift Schedule

Log in each day for a new server-wide reward item, boost, or drop rate increase. Bookmark the Daily Gift page to keep up to date with all of daily gifts! And don't miss the rest of this month's update. See the full release lineup here: AdventureQuest Worlds calendar.

January 13, 2023

2022 Holiday Gifts + Rewards

Log in to get your Honorable Hero Prize 

As a way of saying "thanks!" to the heroes who did not get muted or banned in 2022 (an even greater feat than in normal years!). In this year of unprecendented challenges, you kept your cool, followed the rules without fail, and emerged from the fires still standing strong. As an incentive for everyone to keep following the rules in 2022, we are awarding players who helped keep AdventureQuest Worlds a positive, fun, and family-friendly game!

What's an honorable hero, you ask? Good question! They are what true in-game heroes and role models are, and we want to reward them for a year's worth of good behavior... with 500 FREE AdventureCoins and a character page badge! 

Starting January 5th, 2023, if your hero account met the following requirements:

• Did not receive a 24 hour or longer in-game mute or ban in 2022
• Not currently disabled
• Logged in between January 1st, 2022 and December 31st, 2022
• Level 11 or higher, before December 31st, 2022
• Created your account before January 1st, 2023

You've already been awarded your 500 AdventureCoins. Your character page badge is available now!

When will the Frostval AC Gifting Event Rewards arrive?

I have a bit of design work left to do on my end, but the artists have really done a fantastic job getting the rewards together. I'm currently expecting those to go out next week (that is the goal!), but will keep you all posted with updates should anything change.

Server Update: Moving AFK Players

Good news: surprise server update going out tonight! Captain Rhubarb (lead server coder) added Eht's (co-lead of balance + class design) latest request in. Based on the many player requests we've gotten over the last year: players who AFK in ultra boss rooms will be moved to a private instance of /battleon. 

Tonight: unlock our 2022 Holiday AC Gift!

The holidays are a time for joy, celebrating with your family and friends, and yes... getting presents! Starting tonight, eligible heroes can log in and complete Valencia's quest in Battleon to get 500 free AdventureCoins*, as our way of celebrating and saying "thanks!" for battling alongside us this year through all our 2022 story and holiday events.

To unlock the free ACs, you'll need to:

1. Have a confirmed email address
2. Log into the game through the Artix Games Launcher 
3. Talk to Valencia in Battleon and complete her quest
4. Enjoy your free 500 ACs!

* The quest for the free AC gift will be available until June 30, 2023.

Enjoy! From Artix, Alina, and the entire AQWorlds Team!

January 10, 2023

Still So Much Happening O_O

We're starting the new year off strong 

We've got new news for you to digest as you grab your coffee, tea, or energy potion of choice! Return later today for more information on our changes to the Wheel of Doom's Treasure Potions (discussed in this post).

Today's Daily Login Gift is now available: Battle the Eldritch Amalgamation in /brokenwoods to get four new 0 AC Diabolical items.

During their time as community artists* Dominik and DesperaMon made many popular sets. Now, we're excited to bring them onto the AdventureQuest Worlds team to work even more closely with us!

The 0 AC Frostlord Hair and Locks (without scarf accessory) are now available as seasonal item drops from the Bandits in Snowviewrace. (h/t to AQW Hero Xelsear for sending the suggestion last year.)

In case you misssed it, the Candycane Capybara drops off of the Frostval Deer in the /carolinn map! Get yours while you can. Our seasonal Frostval events, maps, and rewards leave this Friday the 13th with the new release.

AQW community artist Kartos si Botax is celebrating his IRL birthday by giving you his personal Axe of the Archipelago! Battle the Chillbite in the /everfrost map until January 31st, when our New Year's Eve event maps leave for another year.

* artists who began as members of our community, then leveled up to become contractors who create art on a per project basis

January 10, 2023

Late-Night Updates

You've got questions? We've got short answers.

Hello everyone! It's been a crazy few weeks, with the new year starting and preparing for everything to come this month and in the next few months. We've been seeing questions and feedback after last week's Design Notes posts; I wanted to give everyone a quick update tonight, so you know where everything stands, and then I'll do a larger post tomorrow with more details.

Tuesday update: Changes to the Wheel of Doom's Treasure Potions

Last week, we announced that in response to a lot of frustration from many players, we changed the Treasure Potion rewards. We made it so that you'd start getting the 6 TP once you got all but one of the Wheel drops. (181/182 drops). 

After the announcement, we saw posts from players who wished this change had been made a long time ago. If the new criteria were active back then, they would have a lot more TP today. (Because they only got x2 TP per spin instead of x6, like they will now.)

We hear you. Our goal with this change is to make getting your rewards smoother, less frustrating, and give you a more positive experience overall. We want that for everyone. 

So if you have an account which had 181 / 182 drops and missed out on the extra TP, we're retroactively applying the change to all of the spins made between when you got your 181st drop and when you got your 182nd drop, going back to November 2018. (You already got the first x2 TP when you spun, so we'll be adding the extra x4 per spin.) 

This means you'll get exactly what you should have. It's the fairest, right way to address this change for everyone involved. The TP will be added sometime on Thursday. We'll likely need to take the servers down, as it's a pretty hefty query to run.

Where is the Honorable Hero 2022 Award? 

SURPRISE good news! Captain Rhubarb ran the query to award players who earned the Honorable Hero 2022 awards their 500 free ACs earlier today. I'll make a fuller post and put live the character page badge tomorrow.

Where is the 500 Free AC gift for Frostval?

That will arrive later this week! Chilly will have a quest in Battleon until January 31st, where eligible heroes can claim their free ACs.  (If you're an Honorable Hero and eligible for the free Frostval gift, this is a GREAT week for you!)

When will the Frostval AC Gifting Event Rewards arrive?

I have a bit of design work left to do on my end, but the artists have really done a fantastic job getting the rewards together. I'm currently expecting those to go out next week, but will keep you all posted with updates.

Monday night's information, now outdated

Where is the Honorable Hero 2022 Award?

That will arrive later this week. Keep an eye out tomorrow for Design Notes on who is eligible and what the rewards are.

Where is the free AC gift for Frostval?

That will also arrive later this week! There will be a quest for you to claim your free gift. We'll have details in tomorrow's Design Notes post.

When will the Frostval AC Gifting Event Rewards arrive?

Those will release as soon as humanly possible. We've got a bit more work to do on them still, so I'll give everyone an update later on in the week.

Changes to the Wheel of Doom's Treasure Potions

We're currently looking at how best to address this for affected players who would have met the criteria if it were active in the past.

I will have more details for you tomorrow, after Captain Rhubarb and I both get some much needed sleep.

(Time to engage those real-life Chronomancy powers... and cast a Mana Buff on Captain Rhubarb, who's reviewing the solution options!) 

January 06, 2023

Triple Artist Birthday Week

Log in and celebrate Nulgath, Crulon, and Hikari's Birthdays!

This month, we're celebrating the new year and a host of AE team member birthdays! We kick off the gift-off with new quests and gear from Crulon, Hikari, and Yin & Yang (on Nulgath's behalf). The adventures will continue all month long, so gear up and get ready to /SLAY! Whether you are a fan of light gear, dark adventures, or everything in-between, this week has something new for you to do! 

Yang's Favors Merge Shop

Yin and Yang emerged from the Abyss long before Nulgath became the Archfiend but took their current forms after his arrival. They represent the eternal opposing forces that control our universe... but there’s enough cooks in THAT kitchen. Here and now, they want to set you up for success by helping you serve LOOKS.

• Talk to Yang in /tercessuinotlim
• Complete her quests to earn Yang's Favors 
• Use them to craft new gear in her merge shop 

If you played OverSoul, you may be familiar with the first set she's featuring: BattleMaster Tharr! You can unlock all of his gear starting this weekend. 

Crulon's Birthday Gifts: Dream Palace houses

Crulon is one of the guardians of the Djinn Realm... and also one of AQWorlds top item artists. He celebrates his real-life birthday this month but has been out of commission recently due to surgery. We couldn't let his birthday go by without celebrating, though, so we've added a few new items NOW, and he'll plan on making more for you as soon as possible. Real Life Quest: Wish him a happy birthday on Twitter!

UPDATE: As of earlier today... Crulon BACK in action, but not in time to send in gear for this week. We couldn't let his birthday go by without celebrating, though, so for now... 

• Head to /dreampalace 
• Battle Zahad to collect the Midnight Dream Palace house and a host of dreamy house items
• Find the DayDream Palace House in the /buyhouse map to get a daytime variant with a bank frame

Guardian of the Djinn Realm: Dream Palace

A fabulous palace appeared in the Djinn Realm, as if from someone’s dream. Log in and explore /dreampalace to see what treasures it holds!

Great ready to...

• /join dreampalace and take down a series of all-new minibosses
• Continue battling until you their unique weapon drops then quest to level them up into even more mystical versions
• Create versions of the boss armor sets in Crulon's Dream Palace merge shop

Being a Djinn Guardian, you come across a LOT of mystical chests. Several years ago, Crulon found one locked with three magical seals. Decipher his riddles, locate the monsters, and fight to get the seals you need.

Talk to him in /djinn to begin his quests. Complete his Seal of Approval quest and to collect the pieces of the Serpent Knight gear. Find his Sandsea Enchanter set in his birthday shop or the Featured Gear shop in your game menu.

Hikari the ShadowHunter's Diabolical Gear

This weekend, /join brokenwoods and explore until you encounter the dark but generous ShadowSlayer... Hikari! In the real world, Hikari is one of our wicked-talented team artists, creating reward items, monster art, and more for our releases. This weekend, to celebrate his birthday, he's flexing one of his newer skills: map art! He's created a new boss frame and boss, the Eldritch Amalgamation for you to battle. Real Life Quest: Wish him a happy birthday on Twitter!

Great ready to...

• /join brokenwoods and solve his riddles to recover valuable artifacts
• Complete all-new quests to learn more about him and collect the items to make two new rep sets
• Battle to earn his Diabolical Witch, Ectomancer, Diabolical Zealot, and Diabolical Warden* armor sets

*Created by new team artist, Dominik, in honor of Hikari's birthday!

Frostval AC Gifting Event Ends Monday

FINAL WEEKEND! Our Frostval Gifting event ends Monday January 9th. Donate to random heroes on Lore to get items from the Generosity Coin shop + to unlock 7 tiers of reward packs. More details on how to donate, get gifts, and unlock rewards are here.

Holiday Gifts Still to come

• Our Frostval AC Gifting event ends on Monday, January 9th. The tier rewards will arrive as soon as possible after that. We'll give you a more exact day once we're done testing the rewards.
• Our 2022 Holiday AC Gift will be given out to eligible heroes in the very near future.
• The 2022 Honorable Hero gift will be given out to eligible heroes at the same time. 

Cemaros' Update on the RIoDA, Treasure Potions & the Wheel of Doom

We've been getting a lot of feedback about the Wheel of Doom and we do listen! We have made a few quality of life changes based on that feedback.

6x Treasure Potion update

We heard the frustration when that last item you need to get the 6 TP drop, just wouldn't drop, so... we set the Wheel to begin dropping 6 Treasure Potions when you have all but one item. This was originally going to be just the EIoDA due to it's low drop rate, but based on feedback we expanded it to any item being the stubborn one.

Rhubarb Item of Digital Awesomeness

Speaking of things that open when you have all but one item, a new IoDA token has been introduced! Captain Rhubarb wanted to make it a bit easier for those of you who had gotten all (or all but one) of the Wheel of Doom drops, so he's added the Rhubarb Item of Digital Awesomeness. 

The RIoDA can be obtained in your Account Manages page for 30,000 ACs. The RIoDA works exactly the same as all of the other IoDA tokens to earn a BIoDA. You can find more information about those here.

January 06, 2023

ArchFiend's Transcendence Set

Upgrade to unlock the exclusive armor sets

In the transformation from mortal to legend, the true Fiend transcends ALL limitations. Get the ArchFiend's Transcendence upgrade bonus pack when you buy any AdventureCoin or Membership package of $10 USD or more and unlock all the gear regular and color-customizable gear, plus a character page badge.

After you purchase an account upgrade, select a bonus set of your choice from a list of options in your Account Manager. 

Pack Details

 Choose the ArchFiend's Transcendence upgrade bonus to unlock the full armor set. 

• 2 Armors
• 6 Helms
• 3 Capes
• 2 Gauntlets
• 2 Polearms
• 5 Daggers
• 3 Swords
• 1 Floating Blade Pet
• 1 Li'l Fiendish Transcendence pet*
• and a character page badge

* The set list above includes both the regular + color-customizable gear. Currently, only the regular items are available. The color-custom items + the Li'l Fiendish Transcendence pet will arrive next week.

Once you've chosen the ArchFiend's Transcendence on the Account Manager page, log in and find the set's shop in the Other Achievements tab in your Book of Lore. 

12000 AC or 12 month membership package rewards:

• ALL the ArchFiend's Transcendence gear
• 7 Rep/XP/Gold/Class Points boosts 
• 10 Wheel of Doom Tickets (worth 2,000 ACs!)
• and a character page badge

Boosts and Doom Tickets will be added directly to your inventory.

2k and 5k AC or 1, 3, or 6 month membership package rewards:

• ALL the ArchFiend's Transcendence gear
• 5 Rep/XP/Gold/Class Points boosts 
• and a character page badge

Our 2022 Holiday AdventureCoin Bonus is Happening Now

If you're excited for all of the Limited Quantity Sets that arrive tonight, this is the best time to top up during our Double AdventureCoins Holiday AC bonus! Get 50% more ACs with with any Adventure or Membership package until January 20th. 

Get 60,000 ACs while our Holiday Bonus is on!

During our 2021 Holiday AdventureCoin bonus, get 60,000 ACs for $99.95 (that's 20,000 ACs more than normal!) and unlock your choice of upgrade bonus pack, 15x Rep, Gold, Class Points, and XP server boosts, and the Mythic Item of Digital Awesomeness (IoDA). 

Mythic Item of Digital Awesomeness?!

The Mythic Item of Digital Awesomeness (or MIoDA for short) is a miscellaneous item you will get by purchasing the 40k AdventureCoin pakage. Like the other IoDA items, it allows you to choose any item in the game when you redeem it through your Account Manager.

How to Claim your MIoDA Prize

Make sure you have a confirmed email address attached to your game account, and then follow these steps:

1. Decide on the item you want
2. Log into your Account Manager
3. Click on the "Awesome Prizes" link on the sidebar
4. You'll see a list of the IoDA tokens you have available
5. Choose from a list of ALL the eligible item rewards  
6. You'll be taken to a verification page to confirm your choice

Wait...AdventureCoin Bonus?!

That's right! Several times each year, we have bonus AdventureCoin offers, where we'll increase the amount of ACs you get with each pack. (example: Summer, Back to School, and during the holidays). Bonus amounts and dates may change from year to year, so keep an eye on the Design Notes and social media for more news of future bonuses.

January 01, 2023

ArchFiend OverLord Returns

Seasonal Set available from January 1st - 31st

January is a month of new beginnings and birthdays in AQWorlds! To help ALL our heroes celebrate the new year and Nulgath's birthday, this month's seasonal set features the ArchFiend OverLord. 

Unlock the entire set: Buy pack on the website for $9.99 USD* then find all your gear in your Book of Lore badge shop.

Buy individual set items: Talk to Garek to get items from his shop in Battleon for AdventureCoins.

The ArchFiend OverLord gear includes:

• ArchFiend OverLord Armor
• 5 helms
• 7 capes
• 7 weapons

* Unlocks an exclusive character page badge 

Seasonal Set Schedule

Each month, we'll feature a new set, available only during that month every year.