AdventureQuest

AQ
File:AdventureQuest-header5.jpg Logo and all the major characters present in AdventureQuest.
Developer(s)	Artix Entertainment, LLC
Publisher(s)	Artix Entertainment, LLC
Designer(s)	Artix Entertainment, LLC
Platform(s)	Macromedia Flash Player
Release	October 2003
Genre(s)	RPG
Mode(s)	Single-player

AdventureQuest (also referred to by its website name BattleOn and AQ) is an online single-player RPG developed by Artix Entertainment in 2003. It was released on October 15 of that year. It is written in Adobe Flash, and features animation. The game follows the adventures of a character tied with the town of Battleon (the player) as he or she explores the game world while engaging in combat with various enemies. As of July 22, 2008, aq.battleon.com, the game's hosting website, has an Alexa rating of 938. AdventureQuest and all related games are set within the world of Lore, formerly a tongue-in-cheek reference to the game's original title, Lands of Rising Evil, which has since been explained to refer to Lorithia, a name of the goddess of creation in the game's storyline.

Guardianship, a measure introduced on February 22, 2003 to manage the costs of running the game, added a one-time fee-based character upgrade service. Ownership of the game transferred to the newly-formed Artix Entertainment in 2004, and a server population cap was added for non-Guardian players in May of that year. In June 2004, players of AdventureQuest reached 1 million in number.

By June 2005, the game had 19 million users, an amount which rapidly grew to 57 million by September 2007. As AdventureQuest grew, Artix Entertainment added new methods to pay for in-game content, such as X-Guardianship (in October 2005) and purchasable Z-Tokens (in June 2006), and released other related games, such as DragonFable (on July 16, 2005), MechQuest, ArchKnight and ZardWars. In May, 2008, AQ worlds, a massively multiplayer game was created.

Gameplay

Much of AdventureQuest's game play revolves around fighting monsters in turn by turn basis battles. In a turn the player may attack, equip a weapon shield or armor, drink a potion, cast a spell, call a pet or equip a miscellaneous item. Changing armor, weapon or shield does not use up a turn but equipping certain items, changing pets or drinking a potion does. On an opponent's turn it may attack, though some monsters have special attacks such as healing. Pack monsters and a few other monsters can summon reinforcements, which doesn't take up a turn.

As players defeat monsters, they gain Experience Points (XP), gold, and possibly Z-tokens. The XP is used for leveling up the player's character for more HP, MP, etc. The gold is used for buying weapons, armor or pets. Z-Tokens are not always dropped by monsters and can be used to buy special weapons or to buy a house.

Combat Mechanics

Most fights are started through the "random monster" button and quests, which pit the player against certain monsters, usually the same level.

Several things can affect the outcome of a battle, both characters and monsters have a "defense modifier" for each of the eight elements; a higher defense modifier means an attack of that element does more damage. It is grouped into percentages, 100% does 100% damage, 90% does 90% damage, etc. There is also a defense modifier for each of the three methods of attacks: melee, ranged and magic; the higher the modifier, the more likely it is to block, miss, dodge, etc. for that type of attack. There are also some special elements, the defence of which is not shown.

Six stats affect the amount of damage inflicted and taken, as well as the probability of an attack being resisted.

When a battle begins, either the player or the monster goes first, depending on whoever has the most Luck.

Battle continue until a monster's or player's health drops to 0. If the monster dies, the character is awarded with experience, money or Z-Tokens. If the player wishes to do so, he or she may choose to flee whereupon he or she is returned to his or her hometown.If the character dies, he or she returns to his hometown, and his or her death is saved in the game's database.

The Elements

There are 8 primary elements (Earth, Wind, Water, Energy, Ice, Fire, Light, and Darkness). As stated above, defence modifiers modify the player or monster's defence to a certain element.

There also exist two other elements, Void, previously known as Element X, and a recently added type called Harm. Some weapons, when triggered, deal Void damage (such as the Dragon Blade), or in their special attacks (such as the Gauntlet of The'Galin). The vast majority of monsters in the game have a Void resistance of 100%, however, there are handful that have a lower modifier. It has been stated on the forums by the staff that the Void resistance of most monsters will be set to 200% in a future update. Harm appears to be a completely separate neutral element which all monsters have a 100% resistance to. There are other secret elements that certain monsters use; they are not available to players.

Classes

File:AQmage.jpg

An example of a base class armor (Mage).

Classes are special groups that the player may join that use unique armors which, after completing certain quests, unlock class skills. Each class has ten skills, but adventurers (non-paying members) may only access five of them. The base classes are fighter, mage, rogue and scholar. Advanced classes, requiring some prerequisite base class, are knight, beastmaster, wizard, paladin, pirate, necromancer, berserker and martial artist. Special classes, requiring no prerequisite include dragonslayer, dracomancer, ninja and vampireslayer.

Subraces

In AdventureQuest, players may visit the ruler of a subrace to become a member of it. Once a player has become a subrace, it can be removed (if desired) by accessing the "The Cure" quest in Darkovia. Subraces do not alter a character's base appearance. The subraces are Vampire, Werewolf and WerePyre.

File:SafiriaVampireQueenSmall12.PNG

Safiria, Queen of the vampires.

Other subraces also exist, such as the DracoWolves and DracoVamps, though will not be available to players due to Nightbane's (the leader of both factions) inability to make more of his own kind. Being the joint leader of both Werewolf/Dragons and Vampire/Dragons, Nightbane is considered a "Dracopyre", which is a combination of Dragon, Werewolf and Vampire. In early 2007, there was war between Wolfwing and Nightbane (depicted by in-game "event" quests) which Nightbane eventually lost.

Clans

In AdventureQuest, players may join a clan on the island of Paxia, and participate in Clan activities such as Clan Wars and Clan Challenges.

There are eight clans available for players to join, representing the eight elemental realms. The clan names and elements are as follows: Geoto (Earth), Aerodu (Wind), Nautica (Water), Dynami (Energy), Igneus (Fire), Glacius (Ice), Lucian (Light), and Nocturu (Darkness). The clan leaders in the same order as above are respectively: Geoto, Aerodu, Nautica, Dynamo, Igneox, Glaciar, Lucius, and Noctros. To become part of a clan, players may enter Paxia, click on the location of a clan's base and speak to the clan's leader, asking to join. The player is guaranteed entrance in any clan unless she or he is already in a clan, or if a Clan War currently ensues.

The eight clan leaders, Paxus and Negatus, Paxia on the Travel Map and Paxus Arena.

Only players that have joined a particular clan and those without a clan may enter a clan's base. Clan bases contain a shop which sells items of its element, as well as (occasionally) clan-unique items. Some of these items are more powerful when used by a member of the corresponding clan, such as the "Gong of the Wind" series of Pets.

Players may leave a previously-joined clan if no Clan Wars or Clan Events are currently active by speaking with the Negatus Statue on Monolith Island, which lies off the shore of Paxia. Also on Monolith Island is Paxus, who provides information about the eight Paxian clans and their creation.

There are a few Clans not available to the General Public. The AdventureQuest Team Clan is used to mark characters belonging to Staff Members. The Test Characters Clan is used to mark characters used by Staff & KoO (Knights of Order) for Testing purposes. Characters in the Test Characters, and the AdventureQuest Team Clans have their equipment hidden on their character pages to prevent normal players from gaining a sneak preview at unreleased items. There is also the C/A/T (Cheaters/Abusers/Time Wasters Clan) where a character, not an account, is sent. This clan however is to stop cheaters. They get items like steal plate, and they will face certain monsters that lowers their exp and gold drastically. Some C/A/T clan members may not be able to log in to that character at all.

Clan Wars and Challenges

Every so often, Paxia has challenges and wars. During these wars, players will fight random battles against opposing forces on Paxia, battling things such as Airships and other clan members in computer controlled PvP and can repair their bases to help keep ahead in the war. Eventually, the clans with the best health at the end of the war is awarded war spoils.

Challenges are given by Paxus, and happen in his personal arena which floats above Paxia. They can vary from guessing things to winning battles and so forth. Clans with the highest score gain prizes for this.

These challenges are done in the Octo-Paxi Arena which is the on a little island on the south of Paxia. When it is a question mark there aren't any current events.

Alignment

Players in AdventureQuest may take one of several alignments, similar to those of Dungeons and Dragons, which include the selection between Good and Evil as well as Unity and Chaos. These alignments are chosen by actions in-game, and will (for instance) give the player a selection of either good or evil items as a reward in a war. There is some equipment that has special effects or diffrent defence modification depending on the players' alignment. The "Moral Compass", accessible by speaking with Twilly in the town of Battleon. A marker on the compass allows players to see where they currently lie on the Good/Evil/Unity/Chaos axis.

Towns

There are currently four towns available to players and can be explored fully, one of which are Guardian-only but can be accessible by non-Guardian characters by obtaining a "Travel Pass" from Valencia, (which is obtained by trading a pet rock that can be created in Warlic's Shop) which is known as Lolosia.

Shops and Equipment

There are six types of equipment that improve a character's ability and survivability in combat and/or cater to miscellaneous purposes:

• Weapons - Weapons are used to deal damage with the "Attack" command. Many have triggers, which activate on monsters of a certain type, causing the weapon to either deal more damage, seek the monster's weakness, weaken a monster, etc. Also, most weapons have special attacks that will inflict more damage than their normal attack, accompanied by an animation of unique use of the weapon, such as throwing it at the enemy. This is generally frowned upon by players with high-level characters who wish to utilize the full power of their multi-hit armor pieces (armors that allow players to hit multiple times), which the specials will negate. Weapons may inflict damage categorized by one or more of the game's elemental damage types (fire, water, wind, ice, earth, energy, light, and darkness).

• Shields - Shields affect a character's defense modifiers. Some shields also augment the player with "rewind" abilities, which allow the character to be healed once during battle, while others give the player a bonus in damage against a specific type of enemy.

• Armor - Armor, in addition to modifying the player's defense modifiers, is the game's main way of giving characters choices in special attacks. For example, the armor types provided by class and subrace leaders allow the use of special abilities, either chosen by the player after selecting the "Attack" (and sometimes "Armor Skills") option that opens up a special attack menu, or randomly triggered in combat (like weapon specials). The skills provided by these armor pieces generally cost mana and more are given and sometimes improved by performing quests for the subrace/class leader.

• Guests - Guests are characters that join the player in combat, and are usually acquired in event-based quests or temporarily by randomly finding or using specific items. Certain class skills allow the player to have more than one guest at once. The damage output of some guests depends on the players' charisma.

• Spells - Spells are alternate, single-click attacks that, like class skills, cost mana. They are usually more powerful than normal attacks, and sometimes open special attack menus, like armors.

• Pets - Pets may be summoned by a player during combat (taking up the player's turn) and thereafter will automatically appear alongside the character. Like guests, they fight and/or heal alongside the player, but are purchased at shops and are summonable at any time until sold (being stored as inventory items).

• Miscellaneous - Miscellaneous items give various effects, such as defending from attacks, boosting player stats, augmenting attack power, or playing music. Some, usually merchant items (described below) cannot be equipped, and do not have effects. Potions that refill health or mana are classified as miscellaneous, though they are given their own menu and do not take up inventory space. Miscellaneous items other than potions must be equipped (which takes a turn) before their effects are present. "Merchant items" are miscellaneous items that are sold at varying prices based on a pattern in the game's internal clock. They are used to gain money.

File:Battleposition12.PNG

The position in which battles take place, including guests.

AdventureQuest has many shops where players may purchase equipment using gold. Every piece of equipment has a level requirement which the character must meet to purchase it, and therefore use it. Equipment may also be sold back to shops for a lower price. Item-giving chests and quest-completion screens in the game offer rewards that must be purchased, essentially acting as a shop with special items. A character may hold up to eight of each type of (non-miscellaneous) equipment at a time, and they may purchase storage space with Z-Tokens to hold items outside combat (changable with items already in the inventory in shops). Most equipment specializes in one of the game's eight elements, but some specialize in more than one element or have no element at all. Not all types of equipment can be bought with gold, as there are equipment that need Guardianship or Z-Tokens to buy.

Holiday Events

The yearly "holiday" events in the game are:

• Snugglefest: which takes place during Saint Valentine's Day.
• Frostval: which takes place during the month of December and through Christmas Day.
• Mogloween: which takes place during Halloween.
• Harvest Festival: which takes place during Thanksgiving Day.
• Grenwog Festival: which takes place during Easter.
• Blarney War: which takes place during Saint Patrick's Day.
• Talk like a Pirate Day: which takes place during September.
• Wizard Games: which happens twice every year with no known correlation to an actual month or holiday; it is now a permanent addition to the map of Lore for players to obtain spells.
• B.U.R.P. Invasion: which takes place every two years.
• April Fools Day: which takes place on every April 1st.

Storylines

Up until June, 2008, the storyline focused on an apocalyptic being named The 'Galin. The story goes, while there is a deity for each element in the AQ universe, there is a supreme Goddess that created all of them, the creator Lorithia. Lorithia promoted The 'Galin, who was a human, to be a deity thousands of years before the main story begins. The 'Galin eventually becomes troubled by the flaws of creation, and sees the only solution as "uncreating" all of creation. Henceforth he was known as the Devourer.

Akriloth

The first major villain to be introduced, this arc was known as the Great Fire War. This long event set the standard of all major story arcs in Adventure Quest. First, there would be a "kill bar" in which the event still goes on until a certain number of enemies are killed. However, the number of enemies would be fulfilled too quickly, which led the AQ team to manually adjust the bar, letting the bar fill up over the course of about a week. Then, there would be a major reward, and the process is repeated. This is done until the final boss is fought, which is Akriloth in this case.

Even though the event itself was over quickly, the story arc still continued, introducing the characters of Drakath, Mysterious Necromancer, and Drakonnan. They were all related to Akriloth's central goal, which was to obtain the fire orbs for power.

Carnax

The second major villain to be introduced, this arc was actually split into three parts.

The first part was the advent, in which players merely fought incarnations of Carnax's arms, body, and an incomplete avatar in a single quest. This quest was very difficult, and only high-level players were able to complete it. It was about a year later when the Stonerule story began.

The second part dealt with actually fighting Carnax, who arrived in his flesh in the city of Stonerule. The game has been alluding to Carnax's arrival since its creation, in which the first quest new players took hinted at the Drakel fearing something (Carnax). Several major characters were introduced, and all of them stayed except for the Shadowgale family, who merely served as a "prophet" for Carnax's arrival.

The third and final part dealt with the future, in which a villain known as Makkissar revived Carnax to fight a future human resistance, called the Order. Players don't get to fight Carnax again; instead they fight with spawns of Carnax, which were just like regular monsters but with very good drops.

It should be noted that inflation, a major concern with players, began with the Carnax story. The popularity of AQ began to skyrocket at this time, and players also started to go into serious grinding. As a result, prices of items soared, which levelled out to current prices around a year later.

Darkovia

This section of The 'Galin story dealt with Nightbane, which is part werepyre and part dragon. Though not quite as popular as Carnax, the Darkovia plot did not have a central villain. Instead, several previous villains, such as the Zardmaster, now become connected with The 'Galin. This bringing together of previous minor villains culminates in the "Battle of the Sinister 7", a part of the main arc.

At this time, a quest called "Epic Quest" was created. Created mainly to spur interest to get low level players to level up, the Epic Quest ended up consisting of 15 different parts. In order to get to the next part, the level requirement increases by 5. Thus, the first part requires merely level 15 to take part, but the final part required level 85. The Epic Quest's purpose is to hint at a mysterious entity soon to come to the world (The 'Galin) and introduce us to one of his servants, the human-spider hybrid Epheel.

Western Map

It is at this time that the original map of AQ expanded rapidly to such a degree that there is a button for "Travel East". Here, we are introduced to the Clans. It was mostly uninvolved with The 'Galin save for one battle in the main arc.

We are also introduced to Isle D'Oriens, a middle-ground of sorts between the real world and the magical world. We are introduced to the Eternal and the Huntress, both of whom are allies in the war against The'Galin. More of the Devourer's servants make their debut.

Finally, we get to meet Falerin the Loremaster, who is sort of a historian of sort. We also meet his "assistant" Galrick. After a few months, they lead us off to find the Temple of Hope, beginning the main storyline.

The order, which helped fight Carnax part 3, also makes a return, though it takes place in the middle of the main arc.

Main arc

The main story begins with Frostvale, in which a war is fought against ice-based monsters led by King Frost. What's different is that the final reward is the Ice Orb, which isn't an equip item. Falerin then introduces us, after a brief quest, to the Temple of Hope, in which we learn about The 'Galin, the deities, and how various villains were actually servants of his.

The first task was to acquire all eight elemental orbs, of which the Ice Orb was one. Taking place over several months, players were finally asked to acquire a ninth orb, the Orb of Creation. Unlike the other orbs, which could be acquired by a single quest, the Orb of Creation required a chain of 5 quests to be completed.

Several battles then took place, in which we finally see The 'Galin's main forces, which consisted of extraterrestrial beings either evil by nature or forced to do his bidding. These included the Exodus (darkness based), the Predecessors (energy based), Evil Tikis (earth based), Cloaks (wind based), Void Dragons (non-elemental based), Brilhado (light based), fire demons used in the Akriloth story (fire based), the monsters fought in Frostvale (ice based), and sea squirts (water based).

The Brilhado were actually The 'Galin's greatest forces, capable of commanding all others (except the void dragons). We are introduced to another island - Deren - which is even further East of the already expanded travel map. The Brilhado were important enough to designate as an arc of itself, with 7 different quests required, plus two extra scenes. When Deren was released, the story has gotten complicated enough that extra material had to be published on the forums, which is now compiled all into one encyclopedia entry. The material dealt with how Carnax and Akriloth were used by the Devourer, The 'Galin's backstory, and the present state of affairs on Deren.

Finally, the last section dealt with the Devourer's forces directly attacking the world, such as obliterating Granemor, destroying Augerthorne, and various other skirmishes. What was unique in this war is that almost all the quests involved the player's side losing. Finally, the Devourer attacks the Temple of Hope itself, in which the players finally manage to repel the Devourer's forces. The 2.5 million enemies required also set a record for most enemies needed to be destroyed. The character Galrick also perished.

The Devourer isn't destroyed, though, as he is a God, but he is repelled without uncreating the world, as he is convinced (through a certain degree of coercion) that not all creation is bad.

Current Storyline

As The 'Galin is defeated, it is not yet known if a new villain is involved. The current story takes place in Granemor, which has been rebuilt into a fortified city (it used to be more like a shantytown). As for the storyline, nothing of main importance seems to be happening, but, there seem to be 3 current sub-plots:

• Currently, the NPC character Cenara has been infected with a "Dracopyre" virus, causing her to change. She changed into the dracopyre GraceFang and flew off to find her half-brother who has become NightReign. (Dracopyre Sub-plot)
• The Vartai are back and with stranger connections, a new villain, and mysterious turnovers. (Vartai Sub-plot)
• The No Man's Land near Granemor hosts 2 creatures named Visia and Mutant King. Currently, The Mutant King has been defeated, and now, the war "Battle with Visia" is currently going on. The war was released on Nov. 6. (Mutant Sub-plot)

A glitch in the current Mutant War caused players to skip to the end of the war, revealing secrets about what happened. It has currently been fixed.

Ballyhoo

Ballyhoo is a character, introduced in late 2007, that allowed players to earn gold and temporary items (and, starting January 2008, a variable amount of Z-Tokens) by watching in-game advertisements. The limit to the amount of gold a player can earn through this system is limited, though this limit consistently changes. This limit is currently set at a maximum of 13 times a day.

Most adverts shown are those for Artix Entertainment's other online RPGs or the guardian aspect of Adventure Quest; other sponsors include entertainment aimed at a younger audience, such as the Cartoon Network or Space Chimps, as examples. A more recent Sponsor was "Disney XD" for February 2009.

Houses

Currently players can buy houses with Z-tokens. They can also buy pictures and guards to decorate and protect their house. When a player visits another player's house, he/she must battle the owner's guards (if any) to gain access to that house. Some buildings yield various resources. Players can also take some potions if their number of potions is low.

A new feature was added in July 2008. This update is the estate. This allows the player/owner of the house to add various "add-ons" to their property (a garden, a farmhouse, etc.). These add-ons can be leveled up to strengthen it from monster attacks.

Upgrades

Guardianship

File:Guardian13.PNG

Guardianship is a "premium" version of AdventureQuest, which players can buy for a one-time fee. Players who have bought this premium version are called "Guardians", while those playing the free version are called "Adventurers".

The premium version grants the player more quests, weapons, pets, armour etc... Guardians also have more powerful starting weapons, and can train up to level 10 in each class (instead of 5 for Adventurers). In addition, they can log in at any time, despite the server cap which limits the number of Adventurers that may play simultaneously. Besides that, it also comes with a Z token boost, which boosts the player's Z token amount for 1000.

X - Guardianship

X - Guardianship is the upgraded version of guardianship. Besides having all normal guardian benefits, it also enables X - Guardians to get an additional 10% experience points for every monster they defeat. They also can start with three potions with maximum of 35 potions of each type, and receive a single-time bonus of 10,000 gold. Besides that, it also comes with a Z token boost, which boosts the player's Z token amount for 500 more, which adds up to 1500 free Z tokens.

Guardian exclusives

There are some other exclusive things for Guardians. These exclusives include the ability to have an account for ArchKnight and ZardWars, which are side mini-games similar to AQ also created by Artix Entertainment.

Z-Tokens

Introduced in June 2006 to replace the former system of donating money for items, Z-Tokens are rare coins in AdventureQuest, which players will occasionally find after winning battles. Players may also purchase Z-Tokens with real money, with various exchange rates.

Players may use Z-Tokens to buy shields, armor, and weapons - these combat items, tend to be more powerful than normal items, and can be bought with a much lower, relative level. They may also purchase inventory slots with Z-Tokens, or trade them for in-game gold.<virus>

Critical reception

A common criticism of AdventureQuest is the low player capacity of the free-to-play server. Grrlgamer.com highlighted the simplicity of the gameplay, the "not bad" artwork, and interesting story with quirky humour. However, the reviewer criticized the animation and the lack of indication of quest levels, and claimed the NPC names to be unimaginative. OMNG praised the graphic's theme, and the broad range of quests, events, stories, equipment and monsters. The battle system was considered easy to learn, but "nothing to get excited about."

Server cap

There is a limit on the number of free players which can play simultaneously. The limit was fixed at 4,000 during the early days of AdventureQuest, but it currently fluctuates from 4,000 to 10,000 according to time of day and server load. Once the limit is reached, only Guardians and X-Guardians may log in, until sufficient players log out or the limit increases.

File:Aqlogin.PNG

Overloaded servers are often considered a problem with AdventureQuest

Because of the server cap, it can be difficult for free players to log in, especially because the server limit may occasionally decrease by nearly 50%, and all the available slots are usually taken moments after the server limit is increased.

Free accounts start out with 24 free logins that are used once every time that account logs into the game. AdventureQuest also provides an account confirmation that upon completion grants users another 48 hours of unlimited free logins. Additionally, after confirming the account's e-mail address, they get 48 hours of unlimited free login time, to help them become familiar with the game.

Artix Entertainment defends the server cap as a way of controlling server load and covering the cost of running the game. AdventureQuest recently introduced sponsored advertising to allow more servers to be purchased. The advertising is limited to a row of icons on the side of the homepage as to not interfere with the game.

See also

• bobobianias

External links

• AdventureQuest
• DragonFable
• MechQuest
• AdventureQuest Worlds
• EbilGames
• Artix vs. The Undead
• Ask Zorbak
• Death From Above
• BattleOn forums