Upcoming Events!

Things to get excited about

The path to summer is paved with non-stop adventure! Of course, as you already know... we normally come up with what we are going to make on Monday and our insane team somehow manages to create all of the new things and release every Friday. So the list only highlights the extra special events that we know for sure are coming for you... and there will be A LOT more... it all starts THIS FRIDAY!
THIS FRIDAY: Ayi's Musical Event in AQWorlds (This Friday)
Friday April, 22nd: Grenwog! (Events in ALL 5 games)
Monday April, 18th: AQWorlds Card Game at Toys-R-Us
Thursday April, 28th: HeroSmash BETA and... FOUNDER!
May - Friday the 13th with Voltaire in May!
May - The DoomWood Saga begins in AQWorlds!

Fear not, my friends!

Well…actually…. fear A LOT!

Ooooohh! I just got the chills! And it’s not from the weather… since us Floridians are enjoying the 80 degree sunshine right now =D
I’ve got the chills in preparation for Friday’s release!
A new threat has presented itself to the world of Lore. They are called Terrorkind, a race of monstrous beasts deriving from an unknown dimension... a dimension comprised entirely out of fear! And about 3 million of them are headed THIS WAY! O____O Yikes!

Have you seen this Monster?

The Terrorkind must be stopped. If we can thin their ranks… perhaps we can get some answers as to who… or what… is behind this fearful onslaught…
Like good ‘ol Cysero said yesterday, you have to defeat waves of monsters in order to raise the War Meter. Once the meter increases by 25%, a new area of the battlefield will unlock. As you progress, you will venture further and further into enemy territory until you reach the Fear Feeder who is behind all these attacks… and only then may we get some answers!
But this war is ganna be a bit different. Each monster has a chance to drop up to 5 different Fear Trinkets (name is pending!). And you will be able to use these Trinkets in the War Merge Shop to score some awesome never-before-seen items!

Because we all know how difficult farming for merge items can be, we decided to add a…uh…I don’t know what you would call it…but basically you can use these Trinkets to buy other Trinkets in case you have a bagillion FearTrinkets1 but really need just one more FearTrinket4 to get that epic sword from the merge shop.
Did that make any sense? Or did I just confuse you? Good—my job here is done =p   

Limited Quantity Shop

Wowie! Khuddar the Black Market Dealer in Battleon has nearly SOLD OUT of his epic loot!

Just like the name suggests, all the items in his shop are limited in supply. And once they sell out completely… that’s it—no more will EVER be released. So it looks like this might be your last chance to score the remaining items from his shop before it’s too late!
What sort of items would you like to see in the next Limited Quantity Shop? No release date is determined…yet… but we would like to know what sort of rare items you would like to get your hands on. We don’t know when the next shop will come… or what time it will come… but just like this LQShop, we will give you ample warning time so that everyone across the globe will have a fair chance at getting the next shipment of items ^___^
Let us hear your ideas on the forums!

Location: Djinn Realm - Oasis
Level: 40
Difficulty: 4 stars
Total HP: 38,902
Attacks:

• Eyebeam : 133-156
• Attack Berserk Monster HP 20000-16000-13000-8000-5500-2000
• Claw Swing: Current HP - (Current HP - 1)

Temporary Items Dropped:

• Defeated Tibicenas (Dropped during Chaos Lord Tibicenas quest)

Items Dropped:

• Chaotic Sand Reavers
• Corruption Blade
• Rock of the Djinn
• Sand Spear Sickle
• Tibicenas Face
• Tibicenas (Armor)
• Zhoom Outfit

The War of Fear!

WAR is coming to Battleon!

It's been quite a while since we've had a war in AQW and it's long past time. If you have never participated in a war on AQW then here's what you need to know: Everyone fights. Noone quits. If you quit I'll kill you myself.
Actually I won't kill you. I won't even toss a clever remark your way and i LOVE doing that. It's just a quote from a movie.
There are a set number of foes (which sometimes changes depending on the storyline) and you try to defeat all the waves. As you progress you will venture further and further into enemy territory until you reach the War General who has been sending his troops at you, and usually the reason for the attacks is revealed.
This time we will alsi be dropping stackable items that you be able to use in a merge shop to acquire some War Rares, and when you reach the boss there will be MORE rares for you to obtain if you have th guts and stamina.
Some people weren't made for war. Some people were born to be farmers. Coincidentally, you warriors will spend a lot of your time farming the war.
This war will all be building up to NEXT week's Fear Chaser event!

We will also be adding a few new Player Suggestion items to the Player Suggestion shop in Yulgar. Remember that the ONLY way to see your ideas get into game is adding them to the Suggestion Threads on the AQW Forums!

Here's a taste of what's to come. This is the Royal Fang Armor and helm suggested by Royal Knight and crafted for AQW by Polistar. The loincloth is color custom to your armor color and the eys match your Accessory color!

AQW Anything Goes Battleon Battle Cards!

You've already heard all of this if you follow me on Twitter, but this weekend I played took my advance deck of AQW Battle Cards home this weekend to play-test it with Nursey (my wife) and Alces (my best friend). I wanted to know how easy it was to understand for someone who had never seen it before and really didn't have much or any experience with card games.
I slaughtered Alces but Nursey took me down. It was her first game EVER and she beat me flat. I couldn't be more proud of my wife.
I also went to my local comic shop and purchased some card sleeves for the cards themselves and a deck box (These items do NOT come with the game, nor will we sell them on HeroMart). looks pretty professional if i say so myself.

The more I play this game the more fun I have with it. I can't wait to bring it to DragonCon and play some of you guys!
Remember, these go on sale APRIL 18th in U.S. Toys R Us stores around the country. If you live outside the US or your local store didn't get any of the game then you will have to way until early May for the cards to be available on HeroMart.

Friday, Friday, Gettin Down On Friday...

Fun Fun Fun Fun

Zahart has finally awoken his Chaos Beast...the deadly Sphinx. Classically the Sphinx is regarded as a wise creature full of riddles, but the only riddle THIS Sphinx poses is how to survive his BRUTAL onslaught.

I will go ahead and tell you that this fight is NOT for lightweights. The level 45 Sphinx monster has unusually high hit points and hits pretty hard. It doesn't take a lot of strategy one of your friends SHOULD bust out their Healer or Acolyte armor.
Bring friends.

You will, of course, earn a Chaos Sphinx Achievement badge in your Book of Lore for defeating yet another Chaos Beast. There are several very nice drops for members and non-members in this release but it might take you a while to get all of them from the Sphinx.
Next week... face the Chaos Lord of the Sandsea!

Quibble Coinbither Is BACK!

And he's got TWENTY ONE all new items for you, like the Celestial Sandknight armor, with matching Helms, Wings, Spear, Sword, Axe and Claws all of which have color custom accents which apply your accessory color to the whole set for your own custom look!

You will also find the Ra Armor from Polistar and a number of Nightshock items and weapons from Xyo so you can impress them with your godly might or shock them with your electrifying power!

Or maybe you are more interested in Xyo's EXTREMELY customizable Agile Racer armor, which you can color customize with your Armor, Trim AND Accessory color. Perhaps you'd be interested in Skyline's Obsidian Katanas which will appear to have either red or blue highlights completely at random!

Maybe you're more interested in some of Lodarazs' Color Custon wings or some of the other items that will vainsh soon and may never return. You never know how long Quibble might stay. May be a week. Maybe more.
Enjoy the release and have a great weekend.
or else.

BUGS UPDATE!

During the live release, we pushed a few client changes live and, as usual, we missed a few items. You may have noticed that the TEMPORARY ITEM inventory and the HOUSE ITEMS shops in /buyhouse will open an old-style shop with nothing in it. You also won't be able to close said dead shops.
We are aware of the issues, know the causes and are working to get fixes in place. It might take some time but we will get these issues resolves as fast as we can. Sorry for the inconvoenience

BUGS UPDATE UPDATE!

A temporary fix has been put into place. Temporary Item Inventory and the shops in /buyhouse should now work as intended. Thanks Minimal!

Happy Good Luck Day

It feels good to be green.

FINALLY! I know how Cysero must feel. Being tickled pink green is a good thing… even if it’s only for one day =D
Okay so there’s bunches of stuff going on right now. And since you won’t be blinded by my favorite font color as usual, I’m inviting you to come join me in reading this wonderfully festive DN post!
First thing’s first: wishing Happy Birthdays to our friends and family! Both my mother and my sister are celebrating their bdays today along with Randor the Red’s grandmother and sister! Wow—what an incredibly lucky day!
Hrrrrm… what are the chances of having your birthday on St. Patty’s Day?
“One in 365,” says Cysero.
…Right. Anyone else’s birthday today? If so… HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
All the Good Luck Day festivities will be coming to a close before tomorrow’s release, so if you haven’t grabbed the 40+ Seasonal Rares from the Shamrock Festival yet, I suggest doing so now ^___^
Remember: the Cloverfield Stalker Armor in the Lucky Day Merge shop will be going RARE! So this is your LAST CHANCE to grab a piece of AQW history!  

Quibble’s Coming Back to Town!

Even more luck! Everyone’s favorite traveling sales moglin is making his way back to Battleon with his treasure chest LOADED with brand-new-never-before-seen-items… unless you’ve seen previews from our Twitters! Hehehe.

What wonders will Quibble have in store for us tomorrow evening? Will these items be going Rare? How long will Quibble be staying? No one knows these answers, but the only thing we DO know is that whenever Quibble appears… a Chaos Lord is not too far behind… which brings us to…

The Chaos Beast of the Sandsea

Breaking our lucky streak already? As if Zahart hasn’t already caused enough problems over in the Sandsea… he will on Friday night as you and your friends journey to the legendary Sand Castle.

This large palace withstood the Sandsea’s unruly sandstorm and Zhoom believes this is the last place Zahart is hiding. War Mummies and War Hyenas patrol this ancient temple, forever guarding the greatest deity of the Sandsea: the Sphinx.
The heart of the Sphinx has been lost in the sands of time (literally) so no one knows why Zahart would go after the immobilized creature.
Unless… If Zahart finds a way to awaken the great Sphinx, then… O___O
But HEY! It’s not like anything like that has ever happened before... *cough cough*
As long as you are caught up in the Sandsea storyline and have found yourself a Djinn, you and Zhoom can journey to the Sand Palace to make sure Zahart’s plan at awakening the Sphinx are foiled!

DragonFable’s Lucky Week

Aaaand we’re bringing the good luck back… but this time, it’s outside of AQWorlds! In DragonFable, new features have been added in-game EVERY DAY this week! It’s amazing what miracles can happen when we feed Rolith an obscene amount of caffeine and cereal bars. Mwahaha >:D

In a dragon hatchling-sized summary, a new war mechanic was added on Monday. Tuesday marked the remodeling of a very popular house item: the Armor Closet! Yesterday, DragonFable heroes got unlimited bank storage for every item bought with Dragon Coins. And today, Dragon Amulet holders will be able to show off your fancy achievements on your character pages!
For a full detailed list, why not head to the DragonFable Design Notes? Or just log in to DragonFable NOW and experience everything yourself!
You think all that’s awesome? Ohhh… just wait until tomorrow when DF releases the best feature yet!

One-Eyed Doll Helps the Japan Tragedy

The recent events in Japan have affected the entire world. Our wonderful friend Kimberly from One-Eyed Doll wants to selflessly help the relief effort. Water Song is dedicated to our beloved Japanese fans and families who have lost so much in this event.

Profits from this download from now until 4/1/2011 will be donated to victims of the recent tsunami and earthquake disaster. Please, if you have it in your hearts (and wallets), any donation is happily accepted and know that YOU can help make the Japanese disaster a little less tragic.

Head to One-Eyed Doll’s website and make any donation to help this great cause.  
On behalf of all the players of AQWorlds and our other games, Artix has made a donation of $5,000 to the Japanese Red Cross Society. We hope this contribution helps in the relief effort. You can visit www.RedCross.org for information on how you can help too.

What You Can Do Before Tomorrow’s Release

Since Friday night is literally a day away, there are bunches of things you can do in preparation for tomorrow’s release. Here’s a lovely list so you can check each one off as you finish ‘em!

• Snag the 42 Seasonal Rares in the Lucky Day Merge Shop
• Stock up on AdventureCoins for Quibble’s incredible wares
• Get the PERMA RARE Cloverfield Stalker Armor
• Donate to your heart’s content on OED’s Water Song
• Get up-to-date on the Sandsea saga (and find a Djinn!)
• Show off your Asguardian Armor Set
• Twitter me your best action-packed Screenshots
• Help support AQW by upgrading your Membership
• Pinch anyone NOT wearing green today
• Check out DragonFable’s new features
• Smile =D
• Get Fat Panda for your Android phone for only $0.99!
• Smile some more
• /join david to experience some really bizarre quests
• And, of course, Battle On!

 WHEEW. That was A LOT. See—aren’t you glad this wasn’t ALL PINK? I know Artix is =D

Mod versus Dev

Know The Difference

For a long time, everyone with a gold name has been called a Mod (short for Moderator) but there are actually 2 kinds of people walking around with gold names. Mods and Devs (short for Developer).
Mods do exactly what the name implies, they moderate the game and help keep things going smoothly. They are usually loyal fans and supports of the game who are helpful and patient with new players, fun, friendly yet responsible with the other experienced players.
As we need help moderating the growing game we bring on more moderators and we almost always look for players (usually over the age of 18) like the ones i just described above.For the most part being a Mod is a volunteer position, although they do enjoy other rewards like free memberships, free ACs and access to pretty much any item they would like.
You might see Reens (the Lead Mod) and Stratos (the Mod General) running around the game with some of their team muting people who try to spam chat, flood chat or curse or possibly handing out kicks and bans to players who are being rude and trying to ruin other's fun in AQW.
Devs develop the content for the game. Content can be anything from writing quests and cutscenes to building weapons and armors to crafting the beautiful maps and bacgrounds to programming the game so everything works! Devs build AQW.
As we need help building the game we usually look to our community to find some talented volunteers to help craft items and adventures for you. Most of the Dev positions start as volunteer (Assistant Dev) and if things work out, it may turn into a paid position as a part of the Artix Entertainment Staff. We usually look for people over the age of 18, but we are open to talent whever we find it. Several of our artists have started their asstiant Dev positions at 15 or 16 years old.
I'm sure you've seen me, Artix, Zhoom, Beleen or some of the other Dev's running around.
Dev's have all the same powers as Mods plus they get to create content for the game on a weekly basis. That keeps us very busy so we usually leave the moderation to the very capable Mod team but sometimes when we see someone breaking the rules we are forced do a little moderation on our own.
Although we both have gold names we have very different responsibilities, and the criteria we use to finds Mods is very different from what we look for in potential Devs.
Now you know the difference but we will all probably just keep calling everyone a Mod. It's eaiser sticking to one name and it's not like you can tell the difference between one gold name or another.

More Card Game News!

We are getting closer and closer to the launch of the AQW Battle Cards card game!

I cannot tell you how much I enjoy playing this game. Over the past few days, Artix and I have played each other with the one sample deck we have floating around the lab and it's SO MUCH FUN!
I mean, shirts are great, calendars are useful and plushies are cute and nice to snuggle with but this is the first REAL, PHSYSICAL ITEM that we've ever made that is really, really fun to play with. We've played quite a lot as we developed the game but we're really happy with the finished product. It looks slick, it's funny and it's fun (and Artix and I are tied for wins/losses). The fact that is comes with the non-member CardClasher class is just gravy.
I finally have a release date for you. The card game will start showing up in U.S. Toys R' Us stores on April 18th and we think they will cost about $19.95 USD. Toys R' Us controls their own prices so we're not sure if they are going to mark up the prices but they might.
However, if you can wait until early May then HeroMart will be selling the boxes for exactly $19.95 USD (plus shipping).
There is ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERNCE between the boxes that Toys R' Us and HeroMart will sell, other than about 2 weeks and maybe a few bucks.

This Week!

This week we continue the Sandsea as Zahart unleashes his Chaos Beast on the unsuspecting Sandsea. If all goes according to plan, next week will be the Sandsea Showdown, but first you have to face the ancient terror of the Sphinx (no riddles, just damage)!
Quibble Coinbiter will also be heading back into town this Friday with a bunch of his never-before-seen, slightly used AC items and rares!
We'll post more info here on the DNs as the week progresses.

Tonight’s Lucky Release!

Irish you the best of luck =D The luckiest day of the year is rapidly approaching… so we are celebrating Good Luck Day all week long! Adorn yourself in green leprechaun attire and wield shamrock blades while searching for the end of the rainbow. Legend says that a pot of gold resides at the end of every rainbow… but there is only one way to find out if it is true or not! In addition to the Rainbow map making its highly anticipated return, Lore’s most fun fair is coming back to town! Join your friends at the Shamrock Fair and play 6 of our fun-filled minigames: Shamrock Smash: break-out style minigame where you reflect a ball off of Luckee's shamrock shield and bounce it into the sky to destroy bricks Smack a Sneevil: Smack ‘n Whack pesky Sneevils ‘til they don’t come back! Jackpot O’ Gold: Test your strength (and your luck) with this classic carnival game! Hedge Maze: Can you find the secret well in the middle of this massive maze? Clover Fields: Watch for the last shiny clover and pick it for the highest Ticket prize! Rainbow Run: Play a Sneevilchaun and collect as many Gold Coins as you can! Each game offers Golden Tickets prize giveaways. And when you have collected enough, you can get your hands on some Lucky Prizes that are sure to make your friends green with envy. And green in appearance ^____^ But wait--there's a new feature we JUST added! You can now share your high scores with your Facebook friends! Just click the Facebook Share button and start braggin' about how lucky AND skilled you are! =D Prizes, Prizes, and More Prizes There are A LOT of prizes to be won in the Shamrock Fair. 45 of them, in fact! You might have to head to the bank and throw some stuff in because you don’t want to miss out on getting these rockin’ Shamrock Fair Items! All of these items in Mog O’Rahilly’s shop are Seasonal Rares… except one. Polistar made the Cloverfield Stalker Armor just for you, and it will be going permanently Rare once the event is over. This is the only item in this shop that is selling for ACs while all the others require Golden Ticket turn-ins. Wanna earn 2x the amount of  Golden Tickets? You can purchase a Lucky Hat from the Fair-y Faeries in front of the Shamrock Fair to double your Golden Ticket payouts!  But Beleen! I’m running low on ACs! Well don’t worry my friends; you’re in luck! You can use our AExtras special offers system to earn FREE AdventureCoins. Just click here to check it out. By completing each offer from our sponsors, you can win free ACs and get your hands on the Lucky Hat in no time! A new face (and armor set) in Battleon Ragnar has made his way to Battleon with the Asgardian Armor set! AQ Classic fans will recognize the armor that the Norse warrior is wearing. Only the greatest heroes will be able to buy the Asgardian Set from Ragnar along with all the other items from the upgrade shop. Asguardians... and pancakes! The only way you can get all this super sweet swag is by being a Member! If you have supported us by upgrading, then you can be one of the first to show off the Asgardian Armor set. Thank you for helping keep AQW alive and running, because without you wonderful guys and gals, none of this would be possible!! J6’s Cousin is a Mad Green Inventor?! J6’s cousin needs some help! David is a self proclaimed Mad Green Inventor and is on the hunt to “find his true self”…ermm, whatever that means. If you are looking to do some of the oddest, weirdest, and most difficult-est quests in all of AQW, head to the Frozen Northlands and /join David! J6's cousin is a giant, too! This is just one of those funny ha-ha additions we do around the game. It actually took a great deal of new functionality and I gatta give a hand to Yorumi for making it possible! On behalf of the entire AQW Team, we hope you have uber amounts of fun during this special clover-filled release. We have NO idea how we managed to conjure up this HUGE of a release in 5 days… but we did have a lot of motivation and support from players like you! And a lot of luck, too. And coffee. Mmmm. So Irish you and your pals the best of luck =D