INTO THE FRAY
On June 8, 2022, the Into the Fray update goes live. Albion Online's twelfth major post-release content update brings a host of new features, changes, and improvements to make combat, exploration, and economic activities in Albion more fun and thrilling than ever, while also allowing players of all types and levels to get into the action more easily. First off, this update sees a massive overhaul of the game's Magic Staffs. Alongside notable improvements to visuals, audio, and animations, numerous new and reworked abilities bring renewed depth and strategy to Staff gameplay, allowing Mages to feel powerful and in-control in battle while offering diverse cooperative and counterplay options for non-Staff users.
In the Outlands, new Portal Towns extend the Royal Cities into Albion's black zones, offering a safe and convenient entry point while reducing overcrowding in the Royal Cities. Castles and Castle Outposts have been upgraded, with reworked layouts and graphics giving them more immersive and unpredictable gameplay, while changes to their timers and chests will make them a more dynamic element of guild warfare. Albion's 5v5 scene also gets two major new features: the Crystal Arena, a ranked Arena system with quick signups and rewards that increase with progression, and the Non-Lethal Crystal League, which offers newer PvP players a way to participate in the Crystal League without huge starting costs. Both these match types offer new rewards, including new Wardrobe Skins unique to each, along with Fame and Silver. And for PvP players, Victory Emotes offer a range of eye-catching ways to celebrate kills.
New Dynamic Events offer bonuses to all players for participating in a wide range of time-limited activities, encouraging new gameplay experiences while rewarding dedicated crafters, gatherers, and fighters. And along with a new Activities UI, the update brings many quality-of-life improvements like Muted Player and Custom Match UIs, Lost Equipment Loadouts for quick regearing, improved and reworked Resource Graphics, Training Dummies on Islands, Mobile Controller Support, and much, much more.
MAGIC STAFF OVERHAUL
Into the Fray kicks off a complete overhaul and rework of the entire Magic Staffs line. Alongside new and improved VFX, animations, and sound, many staffs will receive completely reworked and even some brand-new abilities, for example:
• Thorns reworked to improve solo PvE for Healers
• Pyroblast is now a channeled skillshot to reward positioning and timing
• Anguished Soul (Demonic Staff) fears enemies based on Vile Curse stacks
• Rejuvenating Flower, a unique, multi-part spell
Each staff line has a distinct color associated with it for better combat readability, and numerous changes have been made to mechanics, giving Mages more options while keeping combat dynamic and fair. Fire, Holy, Cursed, and Nature Staffs are fully reworked in this update, with Arcane and Frost Staffs receiving similar treatment after the update goes live.
PORTAL TOWNS
This update introduces Portal Towns, which replace the former portal zones and serve as extensions of the Royal Cities in the Outlands. These towns will make entering the Outlands smoother and less confusing for newer players, while also offering greater convenience and saving valuable time for experienced Outlands fighters and gatherers.
In addition to major NPCs and buildings such as Energy Manipulators and Repair Stations, each town shares its Bank and Marketplace with its corresponding Royal City, allowing for straightforward buying, selling, and regearing. Alongside invisibility shrines with fully reworked visuals and protection bubbles when re-entering from outside, these towns can also serve as a convenient respawn point in the Outlands. And last but not least, Portal Towns will reduce overcrowding in the Royal Cities and Conquerors' Hall, making it easier to carry out tasks on both sides of the portal.
CASTLE AND CASTLE OUTPOST IMPROVEMENTS
This update brings big changes to Castles and Castle Outposts in the Outlands. Improved layouts and visuals make fights more dynamic, fair, and visually varied, while allowing Castle owners more options for defensive formations. Different rarity levels and synchronized timers for chests encourage fighting on multiple fronts simultaneously. Chests appear on the world map an hour before being claimable and broadcast their rarity in advance, offering smaller guilds a chance to compete for these coveted objectives.
Additionally, Castle Chests now spawn frequently each day to encourage large-scale fights throughout the week. Castle and Outpost Chests now also grant Might, and Season Points are awarded through a new Might Challenge rather than via passive control. All in all, these changes offer increased opportunities for large-scale fights, while providing smaller guilds more chances to claim lucrative rewards.
ACTIVITIES OVERVIEW AND DYNAMIC EVENTS
A new Activities Overview UI gives players a quick, streamlined overview of active challenges, including the Adventurer's Challenge, Faction Warfare, and Conqueror's Challenge, allowing easy tracking of these ongoing events at all times. In addition to these existing activities, a wide range of new Dynamic Events have also been added to the game. These events offer bonuses for a variety of activities, from additional loot and Fame in Hellgates to additional points from Faction Warfare to bonus yields from specific types of gathering.
Local production bonuses will also change daily to offer limited-time advantages to crafting specific items, providing benefits for active crafters as well as gatherers and traders. As a whole, these Daily Events will encourage players to try out new gameplay modes and activities, while offering significant bonuses for those already focused in specific areas.
VICTORY EMOTES AND TWITCH DROPS
Victory Emotes are vanity spells that are automatically triggered by PvP kills, allowing players to celebrate their victories with a visual flourish. They include a variety of different celebrations and taunts, from custom guild banners to creeping vines to ghosts and tombstones. For those focused on battle, these emotes can be disabled, and limits are in place to keep too many from displaying at once in large fights.
The first Victory Emotes will be available via new Twitch Drops, which players can get by watching a wide range of Albion Content Creators. In addition to emotes, Twitch Drops include Wardrobe Skins and Community Tokens that can be traded for items, and are a great way to earn rewards while supporting the Albion community.
CRYSTAL ARENA
A new ranked mode, the Crystal Arena, has been added alongside the existing unranked Arena. The Crystal Arena takes place in the Crystal League map and uses a non-lethal version of its match rules, offering newer 5v5 players a way to improve their skills and earn rewards without worrying about gear costs. Players can sign up solo or with varying party sizes, and will automatically be merged into teams of five when the match starts.
Players will earn Arena Rank Points for wins, allowing them to climb the leaderboards and earn new rewards including Silver, Fame, Sigils, and Crystal League Tokens. The original Arena queue is now also merged into a single signup for solo players and groups, and automatically creates 5-person teams.
NON-LETHAL CRYSTAL LEAGUE
This update introduces a new knockdown-rules 5v5 Crystal League that runs alongside the existing full-loot League. This new mode uses the same rules as the existing League system, but as gear is kept after each kill, it allows a much more accessible entry point for newer players. Rewards are below the full-loot level, but still offer big incentives to improve and climb through the ranks, with high-level matches offering lucrative payouts. Matches will take place at different time slots from the full-loot League, so players can participate in both, and the non-lethal League allows qualification for the prestigious Crystal League Championship during the offseason, which remains full-loot.
UPDATED RESOURCE GRAPHICS
Graphics for all four static resource types (Stone, Ore, Wood, Fiber) and their Treasure versions have been updated and improved for greater readability, allowing newer players to more easily identify different tiers of a given resource, while helping veteran gatherers find resources more easily in dangerous zones. The new base visuals and enchantment effects reinforce each resource's individual identity, making them easier to spot and more enticing to collect. The increase in value between tiers is more clearly indicated, and Treasure-sized nodes now have updated graphics which call attention to the large amounts of resources they offer.
QUALITY-OF-LIFE UPDATES
Into the Fray brings a huge number of UI improvements to the world of Albion. Lost Equipment Loadouts allow for an easy rebuy / regear after death, letting you get quickly back into the open world. Crafting UIs now include search and filter fields to quickly find desired crafting recipes. A new Muted Players UI gives an overview of mutes with quick management options, while a Custom Match UI allows for the quick setup of no-risk training battles, and an improved Party UI gives more options for party management. The new Journey Back ability and Gathering Tomes cut down on long travel and leveling times for adventurers and gatherers alike. Finally, Controller Support has received numerous improvements and fixes, and is now also available for mobile devices.
ADDITIONAL CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS
In addition to all the above features, this update includes many more additional changes and improvements, such as:
• Training Dummies on Islands
• New map tooltips with information about adjoining zones
• Automatic use of Demolition Hammers on hostile buildings
• Improved and expanded low-tier zones for new players
• 12 new ability icons and 5 new Achievements
• Numerous balance changes and UI fixes
• …and much more
activities, i.e. PvP. There is a 2v2 hellgate mode, just find a bro and jump in to full loot action instead of doing whatever boring farm crap everyone else is doing.
