ArcheAge’s December update is bringing more than just holiday cheer and the return of the Winter Maiden! Crafting improvements, Ayanad Design simplification, a new type of gem, and more are coming to you with this update on December 9th, all thanks to player feedback! Read on for the full details.

Ayanad Design Simplification, part 1

To begin the tour of community requested changes, the first part of our Ayanad Design changes will be going live with the Winter Maiden Update! Our current 20 Ayanad Designs will be collapsed down into three generalized designs – Ayanad Weapon, Ayanad Armor, and Ayanad Accessory. Now, instead of hoping to get that very specific two-handed sword recipe (while you keep getting recipes for earrings or rings), all you’ll need is the Ayanad Weapon design.

In a future update, the Ayanad Designs will be moving away from a small drop chance to a scrap-based collection system.

Family size increased to 10

Bring two more friends into your close-knit family in this update! Fulfilling another community request, the maximum size of families has been increased from 8 to 10. Share your wealth, your land holdings, and more, with more of your closest kin!

Protect your gems from mishap with Refined Lunagems

It’s a terrible feeling when you place that last Lunagem into your weapon, just to have it fail and destroy the other 6 gems you had already carefully placed. However, with the introduction of Refined Lunagems, you can keep your previously slotted Lunagems safe from destruction.

Refined Lunagems can be made out of Fire and Wave Lunagems. They will require Handicraft and a few additional materials to create. Once a Refined Lunagem is made, you will be able to socket it as normal into an appropriate item. If the Refined Lunagem fails to socket, it will still be destroyed, but it won’t destroy the other gems still in the weapon!

Please note that once a Refined Lunagem is socketed, it will behave like any other gem in the future. If you socket another normal Lunagem on top of it and it breaks, all prior Lunagems (even refined ones) will be destroyed as normal.

Wave, Gale, and Honor Lunagems are not included in this first introduction of the system, but can be introduced in the future depending on community feedback and how the system performs in the game.

Improvements to salvage crafting

Crafters will find a few improvements to the system in the Winter Maiden Update as we pull the system back from RNG surrounding upgradeable items. Now crafting from salvage up to the Magnificent Tier will always result in an upgradeable version of the item. There’s also been some rebalancing of mana wisps required to craft weapons from salvage in the Epherium and Delphinad tiers.

New login rewards are now available

December’s login rewards are a spectacular light show of presents! Each day you log in, make sure to click your “Login Tracker” button in the Events panel to retrieve a special holiday firework. Shoot the rocket into the air to receive varied rewards including 15 Proven Warrior’s Medals, +1,500 Honor Points, and more!

The Winter Maiden has arrived

Of course, what would winter be without the Winter Maiden Festival! Stockings, presents, decorative trees, and more await you in this year’s month’s long festivities! To learn more about all of the offerings of the festival, check out this in-depth article.

And this is just a taste of what’s to come! Make sure to visit the official patch notes forum to get all of the details on the day of the update.

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