Welcome to Notable Events, a log of various events/news within the Wizard101 and KI community, with the purpose of making events easy to refer to in the future. In the next paragraph, you can learn how to get the most out of this page.
Okay so, how do I find stuff here?
Good question! You might be looking at the flurry of information and wondering how to navigate it. There are a few ways to navigate this page, highlighted below.
You can look at the Monthly Overview found at the beginning of every Month.
You can use your browser search function or the Search bar above to search for keywords or tags.
We'll also create and tag specific pages for important events and eventually have a filter.
We are working on the navigability (new word) of this resource!
Common Tags
Generic:
⭐ The Generic tags denote "re-occuring" events or known people. They are in blue.
KingsIsle will be indicated with: [KI]
Pirate101 will be indicated with: [P101]
W101Devs will be indicated with: [WD] or [WD/Important]
Information about a New World is indicated with: [NewWorld]
KingsIsle Live will be indicated with: [KILive]
KI leave/join will be indicated with: [KIEmployees]
Controversy will be indicated with: [Controversy] or [Controversy+] if major.
Bugs will be indicated with: [Bugs], [MajorBugs], [PartOffline] or [Offline][1]
Roundtable event will be indifcated with: [Roundtable]
Loyalty Storerefresh will be indicated with: [LoyaltyStoreRefresh]
Holiday & Sales:
🚀 The Holiday & Sales tag is for events & Sales. They are in blue text with light purple highlighting
Wizard101's Birthday will be indicated with: [BDAY]
60 for 60 sales will be indicated with: [60for60]
Pack sales will be indicated with: [PackSale]
Events (hover for info!):
Crowns/Timed Rewards indicated with: [CrownsRewards] or [TimedRewards]
12 Days of the Spiral will be indicated with: [12Days]
Elixir sales will be indicated with: [ElixirSale]
Gameplay (Green for Gameplay):
⭐ The Gameplay tag is for things that affect Gameplay primarily. They are in green text!
Character slot expansions will be indicated with: [MaxChar]
PvP Changes will be indicated with: [PvP]
PvE changes will be indicated with: [PvE] or/and [5thAge].
Story / Lore will be indicated with: [Storythread]
Free WC/Krok will be indicated with: [FreeWCKT]
Free membership will be indicated with: [FreeMembership]
Loyalty store refresh will be indicated with: [LoyaltyStoreRefresh]
New Packs will be indicated with: [NewPacks]
New bundles will be indicated with: [NewBundles]
Test / Patch (Purple for Patch)
🚀 The Test/Patch tag is for Wizard101 patches & updates, including test realm. It's indicated with purple text!
Test Realm information will be indicated with: [TR]
Test Realm teasers will be indicated with: [TRTease]
Test Realm release will be indicated with: [TR-UP]
Test Realm live will be indicated with: [TR-DOWN]
Live patches will be indicated with: [LP]
Test patches will be indicated with: [TP]
[1] Tag used is dependent on severity.
Events are categorized by severity; shown as i, ii, or iii. Alternatively, [CEV] may be used.
Saturday, March 9th 2024 (ii): [TR] [TRTease] [SpringTR2024-Teaser14] [SpringTR2024-Teaser15] [SpringTR2024-BMTeaser2] Cam drops the second beastmoon teaser, the Storm Cyclops! If you've noticed, they're doing more with auras. Oh, and, there's also a badge revamp teaser! That has also come from Cam's stream.
Spring 2024 Test Realm | Teaser #15 (Badges Revamp)
Purple badges are "Extra Credit". Considered retired/difficult, and don't count towards totals.
Clicking a badge will show the requirement for it.
Badges now have rewards, which are retroactive, so if you already have the badge, you can get the reward.
Rewards (for now) are just Gold Skeleton Keys.
#
Mar 8: Spring Teaser 10-13
Friday, March 8th 2024 (iii): [TR] [TRTease] [SpringTR2024] [SpringTR2024-Teaser10] [SpringTR2024-Teaser11] [SpringTR2024-Teaser1] [SpringTR2024-Teaser13] The Design Livestream arrives - and boy are we swamped with teasers! As expected, we're shown Spell Inspect and Arc 2 Spellements but they did have other things, such as all arc two spells will be trainable across schools!
[Downtime] In other news, the W101 Website goes down for unexpected downtime, but this doesn't affect anyone in-game.
Thursday, March 7th 2024 (ii): [LoyaltyStoreRefresh] It's loyalty store refresh day! It's an exciting one, with the Dual Dragonflyer being added for 12 Points! Can't complain about the free primevals either!
Wednesday, March 6th 2024 (ii): [DesignLiveStream] [TeasersAnnounced] A "Design Livestream" is announced. This announcement reveals that the show will feature Arc 2 Spellements and Spell Inspect. It will take place on Friday, March 8th 2024 at 4:30pm CST.
Friday, March 1st 2024 (ii): [SOF] The "Spring 2024 Scroll Of Fortune" is released today! It continues the spell theme, with the Heck Hound Theme. You can check out our entry on it.
[TR] [TRTease] [SpringTR2024] [SpringTR2024-Teaser9] A new teaser is here, it shows some kind of tent & has the caption: Will you survive the perilous journeys that await?
[Plushies] [FireCatPlushie] The Fire Cat Plushie is announced to be "coming soon".
# February 2024
#
Feb 29: Spring Tease 5/6/7/8
Thursday, February 29th 2024 (iiii): [KILive] [TR] [TRTease] [SpringTR2024] [SpringTR2024-Teaser5] [SpringTR2024-Teaser6] [SpringTR2024-Teaser7] [SpringTR2024-Teaser8] It's KI Live for February 2024, and we get, not one or two but three teasers! Read on for more information about Pixie Post and other teasers shown. Alongside the usual information about the show.
In addition to all that, Cam would drop our eighth teaser on Stream, just a few hours after KI Live. It's not much, just shows a new chromatic symbol introduced to spell text.
KingsIsle Live (February 29th, 2024)
TL;DR:
Haley is introduced, and works mostly on Pirate101 Marketing. Gary Smith also made an appearance!
Three teasers today! Extract Equine is shown, followed by the Pixie Post System (TLDR Outlook for Wizard101) & the Quest Friend Finder!
No timeframe for the Arc 1 Graphics Update, but have started discussions with Art about that.
Gary: Working on something else with Cam, but not spilling the beans >:(
State of the Games
Spring 2024 TR Teasers ft. Gary
Pixie Post
Pixie post is a new system coming in the Spring 2024 Test Realm. It allows you to deliver mail to your friends, even if they are offline! It's Outlook for Wizard101, basically.
If you have the messenger role in a Guild you can also send a mail to the entire guild, or just one person within the guild.
An appointment time can be set, and is converted to the time-zone of the recipient.
Limitations:
Pixie post only be sent to players with Text or Open Chat
Pixie post costs 250 Gold per mail.
You can only send six pixie posts a day.
Mail will expire after ten days, or can be deleted.
Pixie post is filtered in the same way Text Chat is, and can be reported.
Quest Friend Finder
A feature coming with the Spring Test Realm. It allows you to find "questing buddies" essentially.
It is activated by a button, which asks all Friendly Players in the same world if they'd like to quest with you. Players who accept will be teleported to you, and a group will be created. The system tells you the level & school of the player.
The hope is that the player which is ahead will help the other catch up and then they can quest together.
An ignored player will not be asked to be a quest friend. Players who are busy in PvP, Beastmoon, etc, won't be asked to be quest friends, as they are considered temporarily unavailable.
The system will try to match you with players close to your level, unless there is nobody available. The system will also not inform you of the quest you are 'being invited to.'
#New Monstrology Extract ft. Greg
I'll save you the drumroll, it's Extract Equine Coming with the Spring Update!
Equines are a type of Mammal and include: Zebras, Horses, Mules & Unicorns!
The Extract can be trained in Ravenwood.
Over 100+ Mobs will now be extractable, including some non-Equines!
Section 1 - Wizard101 North America
Have wanted to open a merch store for a while! The Previous "Zazzle store" will be ending soon.
There will be continuous updates to the merch store, hoping in a quarterly fashion, with new items for both games. They are also working on international shipping as a priority.
Krokotopia and Arc 1 Graphics update: No time estimate, but have started discussions with Art. It's something they can 'make happen on a timely fashion'. It was somewhat hinted that Krokotopia was next... No timeframe, however.
Member benefits will occasionally run throughout a weekday rather than weekends, but this is only on a 'few times a year' basis.
Nightmare gear inspiration? The inspiration was the Malus creature itself. The malus represents the struggle between Townies & Drovers over Dream Water (Progress vs Nature). The malus reflects that struggle, which is why the Dream Water is at its heart. The gear mirrors this struggle.
New gallery in Museum? Not sure how often they will be released, but the next one is being planned.
Lore behind the wisps? Wisps are tiny flickers of power left over from the creation of The Spiral. Like cosmic background radiation of our universe.
While there will not be a full-sized world, there will be some content this year, as with the Wizard City Underground, the offering will be smaller, but equally packed with good story. Haven't decided yet if it will be on the mainline but that will be decided soon..
Biggest barrier to overcome when developing new worlds?
Answer from Writing: Dreaming big enough to create something awesome without exceeding what's possible
Players creating own merch? They would have to discuss that internally and see how it might work if they did do it, but they will not say no to the idea.
Section 2 - Wizard101 Europe
W101 EU is coming onto Steam. Novus is also coming very soon.
Wallaru in 2024? That's the goal! Working to get caught up to NA!
Plans to merge EU Servers? We're looking into the idea, but no firm plans anytime soon.
Section 3 - Pirate101
Be on the lookout next week (or week after) for a P101 interview with Sam Johnson. He will be interviewed by P101 Creator "Just Fang", and Sam will have interesting things to say about potential upcoming content...
>
Multi-player mounts and quick selling? Eventually. More contests? The Spring Decorating contest is coming soon!
Section 4 - Stats (not) with Decius
Q: Most used gear items in Pirate101?
A: Characters created last year: Corsair's Jacket, Cruel Cutters, Hunting Puma (Mount) & Ostrich (Pet)
Characters created <2023: Captain Blood's Obsidian Jacket, Craven Blade, Hunting Puma (Mount), Mini Minotaur (Pet)
Q: Most purchased item in Crown Shop ever in P101 History.
Tuesday, February 27th 2024 (iii): [Marketing] [Merchandise] [KingsIsleStore] Of all the things this year, KI announce a new merch store! It sells both Wizard101 and Pirate101 Merch. There are mugs, clothes, pins, etc. The usual things from a branded merch store.
#
Feb 26: Spring TR Teaser 4
Monday, February 26th 2024 (iii): [TR] [TRTease] [SpringTR2024] [SpringTR2024-Teaser4] Wow, the teasers are really starting to roll in now!! For our fourth teaser, we have a very cryptic teaser relating to The Fairegrounds area of The Commons. I wonder what they could be doing there!
#
Feb 23: Spring TR Teaser 3
Friday, February 23rd 2024 (iii): [TR] [TRTease] [SpringTR2024] [SpringTR2024-Teaser3] KingsIsle drop yet another teaser. This one depicts a dog similar to the female Professor? The teaser is captioned "Knowledge can't be hidden forever. 📖"
Thursday, February 22nd 2024 (iii):[LP] Files update for a rather small patch - [V_r750364.Wizard_1_530]. Here is the downtime notice and the patch notes (also copied below). Notably, the latency issues for international players, and the badge requirements, are addressed in this patch.
Tuesday, 20th February 2024: (iii) [TRTease] [SpringTR2024] [SpringTR2024-Teaser2] Wow, okay, Spring test realm teasers! This one shows a really cool looking wolf, captioned Your doom is foreshadowed... Spooky! Wonder what it's for!
Saturday, 17th February 2024 (iii/TRT):[EarlyPatchNotes][Controversy] [WhereDidTheMagicGo-Controversy] New month, new drama, and also patch notes for the next update, but mostly drama. In terms of the patch notes, much of the changes are in response to feedback on The Nightmare (Standard Mode.)
"Where did the magic go" Drama
Content warning - drama & controversy.
Please do not read the section below if you are sensitive to or can be triggered by this content.
UPDATED on Wednesday, February 21st 2024
As the drama ended up spilling into the wider community, a community manager had to issue a statement.
Context
~14th February - Beginning:
So, this story actually begins a few days earlier, with some content creators becoming frustrated with a few aspects of the game. This frustration was expressed through videos that were negative.
Whilst several topics were raised, one prevalent concern was the game being catered to hardcore players, and that it was no longer fun for casuals.
15th and 16th February - Midpoint
The tension continues to increase, with several notable figures chiming in against the direction of Wizard101. Many resenting the idea of Raids, Rhohsmabo, and other things introduced recently, longing for a return to Classic Wizard101. Here are some examples.
Thursday, 15th February 2024 (iii/TRT): [TR] [TRTease] [SpringTR2024] [SpringTR2024-Teaser1] [SpringTR2024-BMTeaser1] Cam drops our first beastmoon teaser for the Spring Test Realm - the Ice Ninja Pig!
Wednesday, 14th February 2024 (ii): [CrownsRewards] Valentines Day! For the occasion, KI announces the Friendship and Flora Crowns Rewards Event. There is no additional character, you can see the tiers below. Interestingly, it only goes up to 25,000 Crowns.
Thursday, February 8th 2024 (ii): [Contests] [ContestWinners] [WorldsFirstNightmare] The Worlds First Nightmare contest winners are announced! Congratulations to Almond's team on the historic World's First on Nightmare Challenge Mode
Wednesday, February 7th 2024 (ii): [LP] The files update today, for the long awaited Nightmare STANDARD MODE! The resulting patch - [V_r749606.Wizard_1_530] - is not particularly interesting, but also not boring. Read on!
[MajorBugs] [Crashing] Servers are taken down at 4pm UTC for a little while to address a few zoning crashes that people have been experiencing after today's update.
V_r749606.Wizard_1_530 - 7th February 2024 Patch overview (small)
Public notes
Standard Mode has been added to the Nightmare Dungeon.
Path A of Gravestorm now drains for the intended 50%, not 100%
Tuesday, February 6th 2024 (ii): [Contests] [ContestEnd] [WorldsFirstNightmare] The World's First Nightmare contest has concluded! Now we're just waiting on the results... although we know Almond was first...
[LoyaltyStoreRefresh] The "Loyalty Store" is refreshed for February 2024! The usual, alongside the Wallaru Wastelander's Pack!
Sunday, February 4th 2024 (iii): [EarnCrowns] [EarnCrowns-AdVariety] Been looking forward to watch actual advertisements on Earn Crowns? Boy have I got news for you! Following a trial period, actual ads are now being shown. It used to just be a P101 Commercial.
[LoginIssue] [Bugs] Some players experience an Error 124 issue when logging in. Advice is issued by KI as a result.
# January 2024
Wednesday, 31st January 2024 (ii): [Contests] [ContestEnd] [FishingCompetition2024] The 2024 Fishing Contest has concluded! It ran from 20th January 2024 to today. Congratulations to all the winners.
#
Jan 29: Nightmare and Bugs
Monday, January 29th 2024 (iiii/MB): [LP] [TheNightmare] [TheNightmareBeaten2024] It's here!! The long awaited first patch of 2024 and more importantly "The Nightmare" dungeon... Thus beginning the race for World's First , which, spoiler alert, would take less than 24 hours! Patch - [V_r749039.Wizard_1_530]
[Bugs][MajorBugs][FireSharkBug] [CrystalCavesBlocker] Wouldn't be KingsIsle without bugs! Not only does Gravestorm now heal 100%, but two massive bugs emerged!
Looks like a regular Fire Shark, doesn't it? Wrong! This was super bugged, casting multiple times and dealing lots of damage! Needless to say, this instantly became a "hit in PvP".
It was introduced with the new Raging Shark pet released the very same day with the Wallaru Wastelanders Pack
But we're not done yet | Crystal Caves
Another bug, known as the Crystal Caves Blocker would emerge out of this patch. As it turns out, the developers were testing The Nightmare using the Crystal Caves zone, and forgot to revert the raid flags... the result?
Players could not progress through the Crystal Caves as they couldn't encounter mobs. Credit DaRealAlmond
Patch Notes
The patch notes were shared in advance of the release of the patch on January 26th, 2024. As is expected, it's a massive patch, with plenty of both public and spoilers/leaked content to be had! Please enjoy!
Public Notes - Shared in advance
Tier 4 for Novus Spells + Path A
Montgomery is now immune (sigh)
Cost for Regenerate Tier 3 upgrade has been reduced.
Minotaur bottom path damage and trap reduced
Incorrect pierce/accuracy fixed on Wallaru mobs
Increased damage / blade values for (truncated): Storm Shark, Triton [Bottom], and Iron Sultan.
Montgomery and Invading Fleets can now properly drop Wallaru Spellements.
Fixed Badge Requirements on Pins
Removed No Trade from Xibalba Shard Reagent
Groundhog pet is now giftable as intended
Azteca L170 Raid Gear now includes hats, robes, boots & wands.
Sandals and Cowl of the Sentinel are now dyable at all tiers
Housing items for Wallaru have been added to many Wallaru creatures
Few housing recipes were added to the Housing Vendor in Hope Springs.
Mini Pumpkin and PB Cookie pet snacks are no longer blank
Friday, January 26th 2024 (iii): [EarlyPatchNotes] [Contests] [TheNightmareDungeon] [WorldsFirstNightmareContest] Guess what? Patch Notes have been released early for The Nightmare dungeon! Also, a World's First Nightmare contest is announced, with rewards, including a Full Dream Reaver set, to go out to the first person to beat the dungeon!
The patch notes are a little bit of a wall of text
So here's a summary, alongside the announcement of The Nightmare (Challenge Mode) dungeon.
Tier 4 for Novus Spells + Path A
Montgomery is now immune (sigh)
Cost for Regenerate Tier 3 upgrade has been reduced.
Minotaur bottom path damage and trap reduced
Incorrect pierce/accuracy fixed on Wallaru mobs
Increased damage / blade values for Reap the Whirlwind, Storm Shark, Triton [Bottom], and Iron Sultan.
Montgomery and Invading Fleets can now properly drop Wallaru Spellements.
Fixed Badge Requirements on Pins
Removed No Trade from Xibalba Shard Reagent
Groundhog pet is now giftable as intended
Azteca L170 Raid Gear now includes hats, robes, boots & wands.
Sandals and Cowl of the Sentinel are now dyable at all tiers
Housing items for Wallaru have been added to many Wallaru creatures
Few housing recipes were added to the Housing Vendor in Hope Springs.
Mini Pumpkin and PB Cookie pet snacks are no longer blank
#
Jan 25: Dream Gear Teaser!
Thursday, January 25th 2024 (iii): [KILive][DreamGearTeaser] The first KI Live of 2024 is here! Usually, there's not much to say about January KI Live shows, but this one was the opposite... We were shown some amazing upcoming pack gear for the Summer!!, and it was rather packed too, with The Nightmare confirmed for next week! Read on...
KingsIsle Live (January 25th, 2024)
TL;DR Summary
TL;DR:
The Nightmare Dungeon is confirmed to be next week.
We were shown some amazing pack gear (dream/wizard themed) planned for June 2024.
Sam is working on a project we've not heard of yet.
There will be a W101 Bundle in May, which includes items for P101 as well!
The Spring Housing Gauntlet for this year 'will be different to previous housing >gauntlets'
Novus is around the corner for W101 EU. Lots of translation fixes based on community feedback.
As of 01/23/2024, there are 43,000 Players playing Wizard101 using the Steam Deck & Controller.
Online bundle sold on KI's Website for W101 and P101. Hint: "Sweet, and full of Sugary Goodness".
State of the Story ft The Curator / Blind Mew
🗂 Traditionally, Jan and Feb are the biggest and most busiest months for Writing, because it's when they 'lay the groundwork' for everything happening in Summer and Fall, and there are "Spring things that need writing" too! Right now they are racing to get scripts locked, before the Voiceover gets recorded.
🗂 Other things on their plate include the Spring Housing Gauntlet (which will be different to previous housing gauntlets), the next P101 Story, and even Arc 5 (for which the lack of foreshadowing was intentional).
🗂 They wanted to do different things for Arc 4, some of it worked, and some of it didn't. What they can say, is that the 'seeds of Arc 5 will be firmly planted come Fall.' Working with Design to see what can be implemented.
🗂 The story is both planned closer to time, and well in advance. For example, before Empyrea was done, they knew Arc 4 was about the Nothing, that he wouldn't be a "big bad" and that they wanted a progression for him. Rough idea of things at the World level, but down the line something may be more fitting.
🗂 Mostly, this time of year is when it gets worked out. It starts with ideas, quest layout (talk to X, go here) to create an asset list that can go to art - and when that's done, scriptwriting begins. Specific planning is very early in the year of that planned update.
Sam: In addition... There is something else that is taking up "a lot of my time". Nothing that you've heard of, and to say more would be telling.
Section 1 - Wizard101 North America
Bundles-wise: They're doing a W101 Bundle (GameStop), with stuff for P101, as opposed to the other way.
There will also be an online bundle sold on KI's Website for both W101 and P101. Hint for it, is that it's going to be "Sweet, and full of Sugary Goodness".
Q: What are you excited for players to experience this year?
> - Sam: The upcoming story for Pirate101 & what people make of the the upcoming Wizard101 Gauntlet, as they're trying to do something different.
We were shown some upcoming packs content, including the upcoming Emu mounts for the Wallaru themed pack, a pack for P101 in February, and an amazing Wizard/Dream themed gearset slated for June 2024!
Calamity: Working on spell text audit - across the years spell cards have gotten more complicated, and they are doing their best to improve the readability of the spell card text.
Plans to join conventions this year? Yes, but not all of them will be public facing. GDC [Game Developers Conference] is coming up, but that's more of a business convention. However, they are aiming to do PAX West again.
Question: Favorite world of Arc 4 now that it's over?
Calamity: Wallaru. Was fun to work on the bosses, and going to be her favorite for a while.
Sam: Novus. Remember reading through the script, and by the end he was more moved by it than any other Wizard or Pirate script had done in a long time.
Joel: Lemuria, liked the heroes, and had a lot of fun interacting with them.
Kyle: In Novus he VO'd for the first time ever (unlike Joel, who hasn't VO'd in ~13 years of being in KI), his favorite is Wallaru!
Kayly: Lemuria (Heap!)
The Nightmare Dungeon (Segment)
The Nightmare takes place after the events of Wallaru, and will be coming next week! It has new mechanics, and will drop the L170 Gear. It will be "a difficult dungeon".
While playing at the office, there is a lot of enjoyment and frustration, so they've started making Haikus off their playing sessions, and can share one with us:
Walls of steel, puzzles,
Frustration, sounds like hammers,
Again, caught by dreams.
(Editor note: Awful haiku)
CM Kyle: Tomorrow [01/26] they will be doing [event-wise] 'something very different'. It's related to The Nightmare, and it will be a competitive event with rewards. Stay tuned!
Earn Crowns (Segment)
If you are/have:
1. Playing on NA & your IP Address is in NA. 2. The earn crowns feature enabled. 3. Not on Steam or playing using a Mac. (Steam doesn't allow for advertisements. Mac support planned in future)
...
Then you can watch ads for 10 Crowns! (may show up between 1m / 1d later). It's currently a test and you'll only see one commercial (for Pirate101), you'll see it 3-4 times, and then you'll be limited. When the test is done (probably a week or so), they can put new advertisements up.
Background info / how it works
The company KI partnered with for Earn Crowns only provides video ads. A 'real person' watches every ad before it's queued. They requested very specific commercials, but if something inappropriate does go through, you can report it - and it will drop out of the queue until reviewed.
If you abuse the report button, then it's designed so that you will no longer see ads. If you're botting, they can limit the number of ads you see, or restrict you from viewing ads for a specified amount of time.
#2024 Fishing Compeition - Mid competition update
W101 North America - Data:
Most epic (96), Most rare (170), Widest variety (195), Most Dekoi (198), Smallest Jellyfish (23.08), Smallest Eel (9.92), Largest Codfather (36.90), Largest Todd Pole (42.32)
W101 Europe - Data:
Most epic (23), Most rare (30), Widest variety (99), Most Dekoi (144), Smallest Jellyfish (23.83), Smallest Eel (12.96), Largest Codfather (36.88), Largest Todd Pole (41.75)
Section 2 - Wizard101 Europe
Working on the next update, Novus is around the corner. There are also text & translation fixes, with changes based on community input. The next update 'Rate My Stitch' will come later.
W101 EU is coming onto Steam. Still working on it, ran into some complications, hoping to have those solved soon. EU Laws are not easy to work around.
Very close to having EU friendly payment methods, but keep getting caught up by laws & different countries. Working with an EU Payment provider, but it makes things difficult for KI, due to problems in the process of transferring the money from them to KI. Please be patient, expected Q1.
Some SOFs will be skipped, and those items will be released in other ways, including Crown Shop, Crown Rewards Event, Bundles, etc. Only thing that'll be a problem is the Beastmoon related SOF items.
Section 3 - Pirate101
The last teaser - 'T' - refers to an area that starts with 'T'.
Section 4 - Stats with Decius
Q: Rarest obtainable (non-retired) housing item vs most common & how many.
A: Rarity was based on unique number of characters that obtained the item from 2021 to 2023. Least common was Wooden Torch (14), most common was the Clawed Runestone.
Q: What percentage of Guilds have Bronze, Silver and Gold tiers in Museum?
How many have completed them all? A: 15 to Bronze, 5 to Silver, and 0 have done Gold.
Fun fact: As of 01/23/2024, there were 43,000 Steam Play sessions on the Steam Deck using the Controller. They'll put a little effort to get the green check-mark and will make sure it works as intended.
Open me for the image summary!
#
Jan 22: Nightmare Teaser
Monday, January 22nd 2024 (ii): [Teaser] [TheNightmare]The Nightmare max-level Wallaru dungeon is teased today!. What an amazing teaser, with a cool skybox!
Saturday, January 20th 2024 (ii): [Contests] [FishingCompetition2024] Do you remember that fishing competition that was mentioned a few days ago? Well, now it's taking place through January 29th!
What to Catch
A Seafarer's Gear Set and 20,000 Crowns will go to the three Wizard anglers who catch one of the following...
The most Epic fish
The most Rare fish
The widest variety of fish (can you catch them all?!)
We’ll also be offering a Seafarer's Gear Set and 10,000 Crowns to those who get one of the following:
The most Dekoi type fish
The smallest Jellyfish type fish
The smallest Eel type fish
The largest Codfather
The largest Todd Pole
Thursday, January 18th 2024 (ii): [Contests] [FishingCompetition2024] A fishing competition is announced to be starting soon. Yeah, that's it.
#
Jan 16: Earn Crowns is back!
Tuesday, January 16th 2024 (iii): [EarnCrowns] [EarnCrownsReturn] After 1104 Days of not being a thing, Earn Crowns is back!! You read, saw, heard, and maybe even smelled that correctly! It was a little bugged to begin with, with some players not able to access the feature.
Friday, January 15th 2024 (ii):[ContestResults][Controversy] [12Days2023-04-WWArtContest-Results] Today, the results of the 2023 Winter Wonderland contest are out! Congratulations to the Winners for W101: Grave Hannah - Digital Wonder & heatherlee_artsy - Proud Paper. For P101, Congrats to Napeopia & Jeri on the grand prizes.
There would be a tiny controversy as it would be suspected that one of the random winners used AI Art.
Although the game successfully served its purpose as a test bed for the community, we’ve decided to pursue other directions in our quest to expand the many adventures of the Spiral.
Expand for the text on the Plunder Hunt shutdown announcement page
First and foremost, we’d like to thank those of you who have participated in playing and giving feedback on Pirate101: Plunder Hunt.
Your active involvement in this test not only helped shape development of the game itself, but also allowed us and our partners to understand what the community would like to see from potential mobile expansions of the Spiral in the future.
With that being said, Pirate101: Plunder Hunt will officially be shut down on January 31st, 2024.
Although the game successfully served its purpose as a test bed for the community, we’ve decided to pursue other directions in our quest to expand the many adventures of the Spiral.
Here’s what you can expect from this closure:
The turn-off of in-app purchases. As of today, players will no longer be able to purchase items within the game. We encourage players to use any previously purchased in-app currency prior to the closure of the game on January 31st.
Closure of the Pirate101: Plunder Hunt Discord Channel. The Pirate101: Plunder Hunt Channel within the official Pirate101 Discord will be removed following the closure of the game.
A final survey. This is the last chance to check out the game and give any feedback that might have been left unsaid! This 5-question survey allows us to collect any further data or final thoughts from the people that mean the most to us, our players! Take the survey here »
We can’t express enough how thankful we are to have a community that is so passionate about the universe we’ve created.
As we’ve mentioned previously, the future is bright! There is more in the works, and we can’t wait to show it all to you!
-The KingsIsle Team
Important Announcement:
Pirate101: Plunder Hunt will shut down on January 31st, 2024. We'd like to thank our players for their valuable feedback and take this opportunity to discuss what this means for current players and the bright future of the Spiral. https://t.co/gsEYrb1uT3pic.twitter.com/LbM1WSlFaJ
Please do not read the section below if you are sensitive to or can be triggered by this content.
[Controversy] [SenorSpicyControversy] 11 Days! That's how long we went this year without drama.
So, SenorSpicy, a well known P101 Streameruses the "R slur" on stream causing an uproar. This is especially considering that he is part of Extra Credits. In the wake of this, another community figure [AroundTheSpiral]chimes infrustrated at the vetting of EC participants & toxicity.
Tuesday, January 9th 2024 (i): [Downtime] [Contest-End] [12Days2023-04-WinterWonterlandArt-ContestEnd] Maintenance is announced for tomorrow at 2am CSThowever there was no patch. In other news, The Winter Wonderland 2023 contest has concluded today! Results to be announced soon.
Friday, January 5th 2024 (ii): Hmm. The Loyalty Store has been refreshed for January 2024! The first refresh of 2024, keeping the Yuletide Stag, and bringing in the Chaos Wizard Cape!
Wednesday, January 3rd 2024 (ii): [Community] [WD] [WDStream] New year, new, uh... design livestream? This one focuses on PvP & Trap Stacking. It will occur on January 5th 2024 at 4pm CST. Here's the announcement.
#
----------------------------
#
2023 (Wallaru)
Information
#Year Overview - 2023
#Bundles this Year
Night Mire Gauntlet Bundle - Gauntlet $39 (Apr 11th, 2023)
Note that this year featured the Polarian Revolutionary Bundle which is a P101 Bundle, but can also be redeemed in Wizard101. Therefore, it is not counted in the totals above.
Friday, December 22nd 2023 (i): [MonthlyBucketOfCrowns] The Monthly Bucket of Crowns is reran today. As in previous years, it offers 5000 Crowns over 12 Months. The only catch is that you need an active 12-Month Membership.
Wednesday, December 20th 2023 (ii): [Vinyls] [MalistaireVinyl] The Malistaire Vinyl resurfaces after a few months, in the form of a giveaway. The last we heard of this vinyl was around the 15th Birthday....
#
Dec 19: Mystery Discount!
Tuesday, December 19th 2023 (iii): [12Days] [12Days2023] [12Days2023-12-MysteryDiscount] It's the conclusion of the twelve days... with a mystery discount! As usual, this code - HOLIDAYMYSTERY2023 - offers a random 10% to 50% off the entire cart. The code is good until December 31st, 2023.
[Downtime] W101 and P101 Servers will be restarted tomorrow. Downtime is expected to be less than two hours.
[12Days] [12Days2023] [12Days2023-11-JingleBellRock] One before the last of twelve, today's surprise is the Jingle Bell Rock pet! Check out our coverage on this pet for more info!
#
Dec 17: Free Crowns!
Sunday, December 17th 2023 (iii): [12Days] [12Days2023] [12Days2023-10-FREECROWNS] It's that day of the year again! Free Crowns! Use the code MERRYCROWNS for free crowns ranging from 250 Crowns to 250 Crowns! Okay well that's a lie, it's 250 to 60,000 - but everyone gets 250...
[Marketing] [Wizard101Vinyl] [W101VinylSoldOut-5m] The Wizard101 Vinylpreorders go live at 6pm GMT - and sell out within five minutes! That's before KI could even announce it! Needless to say, there'll be a repress for further Vinyls.
Saturday, December 16th 2023 (ii): [12Days] [60for60] [12Days2023] [12Days2023-09-HyperElixir] More codes! Don't forget to grab today's free Hyper Elixir with the code HYPERHOLIDAYS until December 19th 2023.
Friday, December 15th 2023 (iii): [12Days] [60for60] [12Days2023] [12Days2023-08-60for60] Our eight of twelve days brings what we've all been waiting for - the 60 for 60 sale! This runs until Monday, December 18th 2023. The last 60-for-60 was on November 17th, 2023.
[Marketing] [Wizard101Vinyl] KingsIsle post a reminder that the vinyl soundtrack is two days away, and copies are limited.
Thursday, December 14th 2023 (ii): [12Days] [12Days2023] [12Days2023-07-HousingCode] Another day, another one of twelve! This time it's a housing code with some festive items, with a chance at a PERM Polaris Express! The code is HOMEFORHOLIDAYS until December 19th 2023.
#
Dec 13: W101 EU Raids!
Wednesday, December 13th 2023 (ii): [12Days] [12Days2023] [12Days2023-06-YuletideElf2023Giveaway] Halfway there! For today's six of twelve days, KingsIsle give away a code for the Yuletide Elf Pack (2023) released yesterday. Code is TREATYOURELF until December 19th 2023.
[ReturningItems] [Winter2019-SOF-ItemsReturn] As the tag implies, KingsIsle return items from the Winter 2019 SOF to the Crown Shop at varying crown costs, available until 1/1.
[W101EU] [W101EU-Update] [W101EU-NASMR2022] As the tags also helpfully imply, Wizard101 EU is Updated to the NA Equivalent of Summer 2023! That's the Spring and Summer in one patch! That means they've now got Guilds & Raids, 5th Age PvP, Cantrips, and much more!Next up, Novus!
Tuesday, December 12th 2023 (iii): [12Days] [12Days2023] [12Days2023-05-YuletideElf2023] [NewPack] The Yuletide Elf 2023 pack is announced for our fifth of twelve days! It features additional Rocking Horse mounts, Wooden Duck pets & L170 gear upgrades. You can check out our entry on it here.
[Sweepstakes] [AlienwareSweepstakes2023] KingsIsle's not done with Alienware! In celebration of Wallaru's launch, they've teamed up with them to give away an Alienware M16 Gaming Laptop. See below! They also officially announce the ongoing giveaway by Alienware Arena.
Monday, December 11th 2023 (ii): [12Days] [12Days2023] [12Days2023-04-WinterWonterlandArt] It's the fourth of the twelve days, and this one brings our "Winter Wonderland" annual contest! Entrants have to draw their character decorating or opening presents under a yuletide tree. Here's the announcement.
[Giveaways] [AlienwareArena] [AlienwareOutfitGiveaway] Alienware Arena announce a giveaway in partnership with KingsIsle! The giveaway is unsurprisingly, the Alienware Outfit. Codes are limited!
Draw either on paper or digitally your favorite character decorating or opening presents under a yuletide tree. If you’d like, use the following sketch to make things easier, we’ll have a separate set of prizes for those who use the sketch!
How to Enter
Post your entry on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram by January 8th, 2024 11:59pm CST / 5:59pm UTC.
Include in your post (all items MUST be included):
>
> - Attach an image of a paper or digital drawing with a character name signed in a corner
At least one character in the scene that must be either Wizard or Pirate themed
Character’s name in the scene
Text must include Hashtag #SpiralHolidayArt AND #Wizard101 or #Pirate101.
Entering for both Wizard101 and Pirate101 separately is accepted.
Prizes
Wizard101:
1 Digital Winter Wonder: 1-year subscription (60K Crowns value)
1 Proud Paper Moment: 1-year subscription (60K Crowns value)
3 Digital Heroic Wonders: 20,000 Crowns + Sky City Bundle
3 Paper Heroic Moments: 20,000 Crowns + Sky City Bundle
One entry per person per game will be eligible. Any group entries will only receive one prize.
Entries must be received before 11:59PM CST / 5:59pm UTC on the end date of the contest.
Use of AI and other auto-generated-content tools are prohibited and will result in disqualification.
Entries that use community or external copyrighted or inappropriate material will not qualify.
If you are under 13 years of age, ask your parents or guardian permission to participate.
#
Dec 10: W101 Down 15 Hours
Sunday, December 10th 2023 (ii): [12Days] [12Days2023] [12Days2023-03-FreeMegaSnack] It's three of twelve today, and we get a rather generous Mega Snack Pack giveaway! The code is STOCKINGSNACKS until December 19th 2023.
Wizard101/Pirate101 offline approx 15 Hours.
[UnscheduledDowntime] [Offline] Timestamped at 18:59 CST [Sunday Evening] on KI_Alerts, the game goes offline with players unable to log in due to an issue with their service providers.
Due to the prolonged maintenance, Free Member is extended by a day!
Thursday, December 7th 2023 (iii): [LoyaltyStoreRefresh] ❄️The Loyalty Store has been refreshed for December 2023! ❄️️ Notably, the Yuletide Elf Pack is available early, and the mount is replaced with the Yuletide Stag [6 Tokens] for the festivities!
CONTINUED - Dec 13: It would turn out that the December 2023 loyalty store was bugged. This was later fixed, and resulted in items being changed to what they should've been.
Sunday, December 10th 2023 (ii): [12Days] [12Days2023] [12Days2023-03-FreeMegaSnack] It's three of twelve today, and we get a rather generous Mega Snack Pack giveaway! The code is STOCKINGSNACKS until December 19th 2023.
Saturday, December 9th 2023 (ii): [12Days] [12Days2023] [12Days2023-02-FreeRandomPack] For the second of twelve days, there is a free pack giveaway. It's a random pack for P101, and a random holiday pack for W101. The code is HOLIDAYPACKING until December 19th 2023.
Wednesday, December 6th 2023 (iii): [Community] [ForumsReadOnly] The forums are set read only as of today. This was previously announced on November 2023's KI Live. The announcement is copied below... Goodbye forums.
[WizBundles] Many Wizard101 Bundles, including retired, return to the Online Cart, like the Epic Bundle, Shinobi Bundle and much more. Full list of all bundles currently available below.
Returning W101 Bundles.
Mega Bundle
Epic Bundle
Great Detective Bundle
Arcane Builder’s Bundle
Pagoda Gauntlet
Mirage Raider’s Bundle
Aero Plains Bundle
Hawkrider Bundle
Candied Isles Bundle
Polaris Explorer’s Bundle
Shinobi Bundle
Fantastic Voyage Gauntlet
Spiral Cup Gauntlet
Winterbane Gauntlet
Majestic Bundle
Avalon Outlaw’s Bundle
Jewel Crafter’s Bundle
Dino Bundle
Mystic Fishing Bundle
Empyrean Castaway Bundle
Prehistoric Bundle
Hive Bundle
Fantastic Fairytale Bundle
Undersea Enchantment Bundle
Grand Tourney Gauntlet
Aztecan Builder’s Bundle
Atlantean Bundle
Evergreen Bundle
Monday, December 4th 2023 (iii): [Plushies] [RileyPlushie] The Riley Plushie is released today. It was first shown in a giveaway on November 29th. It'll be available until January 1st, 2024.
Friday, December 1st 2023 (iii): [LP] It's that time of year again... But, we'll start with today's hotfix patch. Essentially, the files updated with V_r746839.WizardDev. Lots of changes, like Mr Montgomery not having immunity anymore , Wallaru 160/165 Gear being auctionable, various Wallaru Mobs stats adjustment, etc. Notes are below or found here.
[Yuletide] Yuletide kicks off in the Spiral! Plenty of things are back in the Crown Shop, with one of them being the Winter Wonder Pack (2019). We've also got 12 Days sometime soon!
[SOF] The “Winter 2023 Scroll Of Fortune" is released today! - Evil Snowman themed - and it features the first ever Cantrip reward! You can check out our entry on it.
# November 2023
#
Nov 30: Forums Going!
Thursday, November 30th 2023 (iiii): [KILive] [CEV] [ForumsReadOnlyAnnc] November 2023 KI Live rolls by, and I suppose there's not much... apart from one massive announcement. The Wizard101 forums will be set to read only on December 6th, 2023. I suppose that and the letter 'T'. Read on!
KingsIsle Live (November 30th, 2023)
State of the Games
Wizard101
(NA) Wallaru! Dropped on Monday, the long awaited world of Kangaroos & Koalas, and the end of the 4th Arc. They worked on it for a long time, and so happy that it's finally out.
(EU) Final stages of getting EU up to the Summer 2022 NA equivalent. Safe to say that it'll be live before next KI Live, probably well before that.
(EU) Steam. For EU. Still working on it, and hope to have that out by early next year.
(EU) In terms of future updates, they're working to catch up as quickly as possible. They were 8 Updates behind pre-acquisition from Gameforge, and after the next, it'll only be 4. Thanks for your patience as they work to close the gap.
Pirate101
• Besides a small update next month, they're focused on 2024. Scoping out some nifty things for next year - so before they reveal things, they need more time. The current plan is brought to you by the letter "T".
• No immediate plans to add Companion form of Mobs (like Gortez) but looking to do that in the future.
[Editor note: This was a question, but it wasn't worth a section for 1 P101 Question.]
Section 1 - Wizard101 North America
Re; search in bazaar. They have a future plan to review the bazaar in General. They did work updating the Bank UI, and wanted that complete first, and then they'll look at the Bazaar. Search bar sounds cool!
Q: Favorite part about making Wallaru??
Kyle: Playtesting it!
Artie: Gear acquisition economy & revisiting Jewels, etc.
Falmea: Finally having Wallaru be a thing, and not just something that was mentioned. Seeing everyone put it together and getting a chance to create it!
Community News Segment
The Wizard101 Forums will be Locked on December 6th 2023.
This is in favor of a move to Discord. They'll be set Read only on that date.
Extend thanks to Community Discords, they are essential. Now that there is an official Discord, it helps the team communicate with players much easier.
New extra credits participants: AwesomeTheSauce, DanielSunSword, KaylyMariewind & much more!
Objective #7 (Nov) concludes tomorrow, and Objective #8 (Dec) will begin.
W101 NA Objective is to make content covering Wallaru, for P101/W101 EU - anything winter themed.
Great Dinner Debate is now complete, and the results are out!
Quick fire Q&A:
Can consider running member benefits on Weekdays as well.
A new monstrology extract is planned in the near future..
Celestian Spellemental Pack will return.
They are aware that drop notifications are missing, it will be fixed soon.
Question: What monsters from Wallaru do you want as a pet? | Kyle: Emu Rider! Artie: The Spiral
Section 2 - Wizard101 Europe
They can't ask volunteers to translate for legal reasons. They also wouldn't know if the volunteers would implement nefarious translations.
EU Test Realm? They can consider it in the future, but at this time, they can't dedicate the maintenance team and hardware to maintaining seven more test realms. Just not feasible right now.
They value feedback, but keep in mind they are just one team, so things may take longer, or not be possible to do, but really appreciate everyone and encourage continued feedback.
Joel: Your passion and patience is appreciated, Lots of updates out already, and trying to get EU caught up. They just launched Wallaru on NA, and a good chunk of the team is now working on EU content, so that it can be out ASAP.
Section 3 - Stats with Decius
Total animus extracted by all players: 90,167,559.
Max number of Beastmoon T5 Forms on 1 Character | Top 3: 50, 42, 26
Over 1000 (11 Gallons) Hats have been stitched. [Pirate101 Data]
Parent death origin: Armada 23.99%, followed by Treasure Hunt, Mutiny, Squid & Storm
Open me for the image summary!
Tuesday, November 28th 2023 (ii): [Plushies] [RileyPlushie] The Riley Plushie is announced today, as usual by them giving two away prior to release.
Sunday, November 26th 2023 (ii):[TR][Wallaru] It is noted by a few in the community that the Wallaru update notes have changed in preparation for Wallaru going live.
Monday, November 20th 2023 (ii):[CrownsRewards] The Wizards Giving Crowns Rewards Eventkicks off today! It features many things, but not a character elixir. The top prize is the "Autumn Imp Bumper Car" at 80,000 Crowns. See the complete event below.
[DevInfo] Wallaru is confirmed to not be this week by Sparck, it will come after the Thanksgiving break.
#
Nov 17: Test Realm Finished
Friday, November 17th 2023 (iii):[TR] [FallTest2023] The conclusion of the Wallaru Test Realm is here, with Wallaru to launch soon! Test finished today, and started on October 30th 2023. this would mean test had been up for 18 Days (or 14 excl Weekends) and 4 Patches. That's the same as Novus! Have we got a pattern here?
[60for60] 60-for-60 Sale! This one is running from today until November 11th, 2023. The last 60-for-60 was on September 8th 2023 for Wizard101's 15th Birthday.
#
Nov 15: TR - Patch 4!
Wednesday, November 15th 2023 (iii): [TR] [TP] [FallTR2023] Remember the Maintenance? Well, Test realm remained offline a bit longer for an unexpected test realm patch! This one appears to tie up remaining loose ends (like missing crafting) in preparation for Live. Here's all the information on V_r746543.WizardDev - our fourth and final test patch.
🚀 The final test realm patch. The only thing particularly of note here is the new recipes! You can also now interact with Dasein in the final quest. As usual, leaks plentiful, with three new duck pets stealing the spotlight!
Public / Notes (Summary)
Dasein is no longer un-interactive for the final quest.
New Badges , Loot Drops, Quest Rewards, and Recipes added throughout Wallaru.
Invading Fleets & Crash the Bandit Coot Challenge Mode turned on.
Freddie Kroaker and Mr. Montgomery fights adjusted for Standard and Challenge Modes.
Tuesday, November 14th 2023 (iii): [Downtime] [HWMaintenance] [MaintenanceDelay] KingsIsle announces that Wizard101 EU & NA (including Test Realm), and Pirate101 will be undergoing extended hardware maintenance for up to 8 hours! from 8am UTC/2am CST. Interestingly, there was a hardware maintenance literally last week!
Continued: This maintenance actually overran quite considerably, running from 8am UTC to ~8pm UTC!
[Gamigo] Gamigo have a publisher sale. Notably for Wizard101, this included free member for Steam accounts only, a crowns sale, and their 12-Month Member & Crowns Deal.
Friday, November 10th 2023 (ii): [VeteransDay] Lest we forget. Today is Veterans Day, and KingsIsle share this year's item - the Banner of Remembrance, with a code: VETERANSDAY2023.
#
Nov 9: Wallaru finale / P3
Thursday, November 9th 2023 (iii):[TR] [TP] [FallTR2023] [FallTR2023-WallaruWallDown] [FallTR2023-GearDelayed] The Wallaru Spoiler Wallis going down, woo! Unfortunately, we also learn that some of the Dream Reaver gear will not be available with Wallaru. Following this news, we get a test realm patch - more on V_r746214.WizardDev below!
1. The Nightmare - Some gear delayed
In short, what they wanted to do with the Dream Reaver "Hat, Robe, Boots & Wand" is create a unique experience to obtain them - a dungeon known as: The Nightmare. Unfortunately, development couldn't be completed in time for Wallaru going live, and rushing the dungeon wasn't an option.
So, we will not be seeing The Nightmare and the associated Dream Reaver "Hat, Robe, Boots & Wand" until Early 2024, according to KI.
2. V_r746214.WizardDev (November 9th, 2023)
🚀 The wall is down! Players are now free to experience the epic ending of Wallaru! Do you know what's also epic? The new Wizard101 Intro Screen! Surprise!! Other than that, the mobs/bosses receive a massive buff! Here are the notes.
Public / Notes
The wall is down, and the Wallaru Finale revealed... almost*
That's right, the classic Wizard101 Intro-Screen that everyone skips has been given an HD Makeover! Of all the things that were seen coming this year, surely this was not one of them!
Wednesday, November 8th 2023 (ii): [Showdowns] [GreatDinnerDebate2023] So, remember the Snack Showdown from April 2023? This is just like that, but thanksgiving dinner themed.
Tuesday, November 7th 2023 (iii): [LoyaltyStoreRefresh] The Loyalty Store has been refreshed for November 2023! Just some pack shuffling. Other than that, the first re-run of the Moon Elegant is now complete!
[Downtime] [HWMaintenance] In other news, It's announced that servers will be undergoing Hardware Maintenance tomorrow from 2am CST & possibly up to 10am CST! That's 8 hours!!
(1/8) Vest of the Night -> Hat of the Night [Rerun-1]
(2/8) Freaky Floramancer -> Burrower's Rebellion
(3/8) Burrower's Rebellion -> Skyfarer's Hoard
(4/8) Skyfarer's Hoard -> Night Mire Pack
(7/8) Fishing Benefit (1h) -> x2 Animus (2h)
#
Nov 3: Test Realm Reset!
Friday, November 3rd 2023 (iii): [TR] [FallTest2023] [FallTest2023-CharReset] Surprise! But the bad kind. It's announced that our test realm characters will be reset to October 30th due to technical issues. Many were obviously not happy at having to redo the World.
#
Nov 2: TR - Patch 2!
Thursday, November 2nd 2023 (iii): [TP] [FallTest2023] The very first test realm patch for the Wallaru Test Realm is here - V_r745555.WizardDev. This one finally gives us the actualDream Reaver gear! Rainbow Serpent receives a long awaited change - it now requires one school pip and deals Storm damage instead.
[WiseWitchCrafter] The long awaited Wise Witchcrafter Bundle surfaces on GameStop, but is not yet available for purchase.
V_r745555.WizardDev (WTestPatch-1 / New 'Dream Reaver', Rainbow Serpent Change)
V_r745555.WizardDev (November 2nd, 2023)
🚀 This is a rather packed patch... but it's packed with amazing things! Amazing things like the Dream Reaver gear we were supposed to get. We also see a resolution to Rainbow Serpent (which if you recall required two school pips, leaving many unhappy). Read on!
Fall 2023 [FallTest2023Launch] - TR Notes (5:37pm GMT). The finale of Arc 4, and the main addition of this test realm. The max level is now 170 - Supreme. This test realm had 19 Teasers! The first of which we saw back on June 19th! (Guild Museum).
New Unearthly Jewels as part of the Jewels Audit. As previously hinted, these jewels are very strong! They could offer 500 Health or 10% Damage in a single jewel!
So, remember the floaty doors from June's KI Live? It turns out that's the Guild Museum! We were told it was coming in Fall. Here's an extract from the Update Notes on it.
❝
Welcome to the Guild Museum where you can immortalize your guild’s adventures through the Spiral. The Avalon Gallery can now be unlocked with the help of players in your guild. Speak to Finn Celtus on the Guild Island to get started. First your guild must unlock Museum Island. ❞
Spoilers / Leaks
As with every test realm, we get boatloads of leaks and things to be excited for... Less than other test realms, but still.
Saturday, October 28th 2023 (ii/TRT): [TRTease] [FallTR2023-Teaser18] [FallTR2023-Teaser19] [Fall2023TR-BMTeaser4] [Fall2023TR-BMTeaser5] Not safe from teasers, even on the weekend! Cam teases the Death Colossus beastform. He says he'll talk about this, and tease the final beastform, on stream - which is revealed to be the Balance Elf! That's all them teasers!
#
Oct 27: TR Teaser 16/17
Friday, October 27th 2023 (iii/TRT): [TRTease] [FallTR2023-Teaser16] [FallTR2023-Teaser17] [Fall2023TR-RBTeaser2] Teasers galore! The 15th teaser, from Ratbeard's stream, is literally just all the New Wallaru Spells and their paths - and that's off the back of the animations yesterday. Those are some decent AOEs, the Balance one is an upgrade over Sandstorm!
And, KingsIsle drop another TikTok Teaser, this one focusing on the Juggernaut Crab Theatre! There's the "Wallaru Tourism Agency" again, doing its tour apparently, and we get pictures of the in-game zones too. Neat.
Thursday, October 26th 2023 (iii/TRT): [KILive][TRTease] [FallTR2023-Teaser14] [AllSpellsTeaser2023] [Fall2023TR-ArtTeaser1] KingsIsle Live for October 2023 takes place today, which brings our 14th Teaser, as expected! Pretty big teaser at that, they tease all the Wallaru Spells animations! A first! See the notes below, and the animations!
Click here for Wallaru Spells animations teaser.
[FallTR2023-Teaser15] [Fall2023TR-BMTeaser3] Cam teases the upcoming Life Rat Thief on Stream and on Twitter (X).
KingsIsle Live (October 26th, 2023)
Pirate101: Plunder Hunt
"Thanks for going from rioting to giving constructive feedback."
The game is not polished/complete. They know it has too many ads. They took an existing "fun game", and wanted to see how it'd look like with P101 assets. As part of testing, the game is added to app stores. They want to take steps to turn it into an extension of the world of P101.
They want feedback as to how to take this / any game and build something you want to play on Mobile. They know the game isn't there, they want to iterate on it, improve the mechanics and gameplay, and maybe include lore.
The teams for P101 Plunder Hunt and P101 are different. Collaborating with Gamigo. They hope to eventually launch their first spiral-themed mobile game since Grub Guardian, and can perhaps make something similar to Grub Guardian.
State of the Games
Wizard101 North America
Wallaru Writers & Art Interview:
We've met characters from Wallaru before. For some time, Art has wanted the player to go to Wallaru because of the plethora of references & cool creatures, and the obvious blocker was that they couldn't tie it to the mainline story. After Novus, they found a reason for us to go there!
There isn't really one "body" of Australian Mythology, so there weren't many hooks to grab. They did a ton of research, and they found myths to explore. They looked at everything Australian, and they fought hard to figure out how many Mad Max references they could put in there.
Worried that coming off Novus, Wallaru was going to feel normal. Though, they found the Weirdness, and they brought it out. Pleased with the results.
There was a "kerfuffle" back in Lemuria, where players believed that the beginning was just Aztec rehashed, which is not true. Parts of Lemuria were purposely reused and reworked, but the beginning was completely original.
Ever since then, it feels like "a fight against players who say they're "lazy and reuse stuff". That being said, Australia has orange dirt, trees, etc, and this is similar to other places.
With the timeframe, they wanted to capture the magic of that "pioneering era" of Australia. So, things are set in Late 19th/Early 20th century Australia.
Looked to find different stuff, and wanted to use the Barrier Reef, and were trying to figure out for longest time how to bring that in there. They figured out how to do it, "in a very strange way." If you look up what Eucalyptus Trees look like, they have a whole forest of them there.
There'll be things that players might recognize as the American West, but they are not related, and there is hardly any reuse from there. All of it was pretty much Original.
For the first time, the Art department has been working hard to create a teaser for us. As such, they're happy to show you the current progress of the Wallaru Spells, not even on test yet, all seven of them!
> (Note: They then showed us the spells)
Unlike recent years, due to community feedback, these spells will be attached to spell quests. So, there will be lore attached to them - you will learn a thing or two about Australia, Zander, etc.
W101 Europe
🗂 Don't mind adding the teaser codes with Azoth when the time for Guilds comes for EU.
🗂 Next EU update is "rounding the corner". Soon. Looking to launch it by the end of the year, and the update after should follow quickly. Pretty good progress since last KI Live on Wiz EU Steam.
Pirate101
Awesome to see the community feedback on 'Wheels Within Wheels....' and to close out the story with the 2023's 3rd Update of the year. Really excited about "all the places you'll go in 2024."
Falmea: Newest favorite memory is seeing the influx of new Pirate101 Players
Section 2 - Wallaru Q&A
Q1: Are all the areas going to be desert? What animals will we see?
A1:Wide variety of environments, Australia is more than just "arid scrub", drew inspiration from lots of places, such as the Barrier Reef. As for the animals, mostly mammals, but there is a "lovely fish."
Q2: Favorite line of Wallaru dialogue?
A2: That would be telling.
Q3: Any returning characters in Wallaru?
A3: We already know Sandiago is returning, and there's another obvious returning Cameo easily guessed.
Q4: Most challenging part of making Wallaru?
A4: Balancing the needs of the World, with the needs of the Arc, and handling depictions of Australian Mythology with sensitivity.
Q5: Any new Monstrology updates?
A5: Mainly focused on setting up Monstrology for Wallaru. Looking forward to further improvements and bug fixes for Monstrology that will hopefully happen throughout test realm. Looking into further additions to the system throughout the next year.
Section 3 - Wizard101 Europe
Moose/Rex from new worlds? Moose: Most likely December, and as for the Cyber Rex, next two to three months? There's lots of updates going out fast, so each new item needs its time to shine.
No character transfer plans for EU yet. Possible in the future, and they are looking into it. It's going to take some devs "Offline", and that decision has to consider whether it's the right time to take that person off, and whether it's worth the time and effort.
Open me for the image summary!
#
Oct 25: P101 - Plunder Hunt
Wednesday, October 25th 2023 (iiii): [MobileGames] [P101] [P101PlunderHunt] In the unexpected move of the Century, KingsIsle is now back into the mobile game market, with a new title - Pirate101: Plunder Hunt. Well, I say KingsIsle, the development of the game is given to another company 'Just Digital' within gamigo.
Tuesday, October 24th 2023 (iii): [TRTease] [FallTR2023-Teaser13] [Fall2023TR-BMTeaser2] Here it is - the second Beastmoon teaser for the Fall 2023 Test Realm, the Myth Krokomummy. This one is oriented around minions, but we'll have to wait for more information on that, and another teaser, this Thursday.
#
Oct 23: Fall Tease 12 - Heal
Monday, October 23rd 2023 (iii): [TRTease] [FallTR2023-Teaser12] [Fall2023TR-RBTeaser1] [CrownsRewards] [MaxChar] Double whammy today! Starting off, Ratbeard drops five Spellwrighting paths changes coming with Test Realm, all concerning Healing. Specficially, nerfs. It's too many to include here, so the view tweet for now.
Also, the Feeling Impish Crowns Rewards Event is announced, making the 19th Max Character possible as of today (for 60,000 Crowns). In addition, the Lute is released for the first time.
#
Oct 22: Fall Teaser 11 - BM 1
Sunday, October 22nd 2023 (iii): [TRTease] [FallTR2023-Teaser11] [Fall2023TR-BMTeaser1] Cam drops the first Beastmoon Teaser for the Fall 2023 Test Realm - the Fire Fairy - we're expecting more to come this week.
#
Oct 16: Wallaru Bundles
Monday, October 16th 2023 (ii): [PreWorldBundles] [WallaruBundles] [Wallaru] That wasn't long! Today, KingsIsle release Wallaru Bronze, Silver & Gold Bundles to the Wallaru page. Similar to the Novus Bundles last year, with a few notable changes.
The bundles begin at $14.95 (Bronze - Wallaru) as opposed to $49 (Bronze - Novus).
However, the mount - Outback Rover is exclusive to the $99.00 (Gold) bundle only. Lower than last year's $129.
Interestingly, on-top of the Member & Crowns, you only get the Beanie for $15.
#
Oct 13: Wallaru Teaser 9
Friday, October 13th 2023 (ii): [Wallaru] [TRTease][FallTR2023-Teaser10] [WallaruTeaser-9] The grand finale! The last in the Boris Tallstaff series has arrived. This one continues the tale of whether Boris Tallstaff survived the Bunyips! We get a peek at the Bunyips, and a little lore drop.
❝ Needless to say, I wasn’t about to try that again. Bunyips aren’t the only thing out there. Locals tell tales of bears and devils and serpents and horrors. And in their dreams, there is something darker, something new, something croaking a grim and childish song. ❞
Thursday, October 12th 2023 (ii): [Community] [CommunityAnnc] [KIBansStatement] KingsIsle announces that they've sanctioned accounts involved in Harassment towards other players, highlighting that they've seen an increase, especially from those involved in PvP. They also mention exploiting. Here's the forum post.[1].
🚀 You read that right, Dyvim Plushie! Whilst we have no public notes, and while there isn't much in the files, still a fair bit, so let's just get into it.
Wednesday, October 11th 2023 (ii): [ExtraLife] [ExtraLife2023] This year's Extra Life is announced! At this point, both the $100 Tier bundles are released (Choice of Polarian Revolutionary or Adventurer's Outback) marking a shift from the unreleased bundle $100 reward usual for Extra Life.
$25 Prizes
Celestial Pantera
2 Freaky Floramancer (W101 + P101)
2 Burrower's Rebellion (W101)
2 Mustang Wrangler's Pack (P101).
$50 Prizes
15,000 Crowns
15,000 Crowns
Prizes at $25.
$100 Prizes
Polarian Revolutionary Bundle or Wallaru Outback Bundle
Prizes at $50
Prizes at $25.
#
Oct 9: Polarian Revolutionary
Monday, October 9th 2023 (ii): [NewBundles] The Polarian Revolutionary Bundle is released today! This is actually a Pirate101 Bundle with items for Wizard101 too! Notable in this bundle is the decent aesthetics and hilarious mount! Check out our entry on this bundle here.
Since this bundle is a Pirate101 crossover, it's not being counted towards our expected four for this year. As the Outback Adventurer's Bundle was released on October 6th, that makes the last Bundle not a World Bundle for this year!
#
Oct 7: Azteca Raid Beaten!
Saturday, October 7th 2023 (ii): [Raids] [RaidBeaten] [CryingSkyRaid] The Crying Sky Raid has finally been beaten! After many attempts, and in the wake of a ban wave for abusing unintentional spawned chests exploit..
The raid was, until today, not beaten since July 10th, 2023. That's 89 days and in stark contrast to the one day it took to beat the Dragonspyre 'Voracious Void' raid on Test Realm.
Obvious footnote that the Raid was reportedly bugged for most of test realm.
#
Oct 6: Wallaru Teaser 8
Friday, October 6th 2023 (ii): [Wallaru][TRTease][FallTR2023-Teaser9] [WallaruTeaser-8]Our 8th teaser! This one is a continuation of the Boris Tallstaff saga, and focuses on the Outback area of Wallaru. As usual, with some lore hints!
[NewBundles] The "Adventurer's Outback Bundle" is... released?? The world isn't even out yet! This makes this bundle an anomaly, as the World Bundle is usually our last... This follows on from the leak a few days ago by GameStop. Here's our entry on it.
[Roundtable] [RoundtableAnnouncement] Okay the tag's a lie, it's more like a Q&A, an Arc 4 Q&A to be specific! It's hosted by Wiki101 in their Discord.
Water holds a special place in this world’s history and culture. But not just regular water, no, a variably colored substance they call “Dream Water.” Once Wallaru’s primary draw, Dream Water is said to be literally the substance of dreams and it can incept great ideas and ambitions.
Dream Water has inspired the inventors of Marleybone, the artists of Valencia, and the ever-morose writers of the Walrusk Empire. It showed warmongers the value of peace and alchemists impossible new concoctions.
Thursday, October 5th 2023 (ii): [Downtime] Servers go down for minor maintenance. Likely to reset the Rate My Stitch event back to Halloween.
#
Oct 4: AZ Raid Chest Bans
Wednesday, October 4th 2023 (iiii): [AZRaidChestsGlitch2023] [Bestof2023] [Bans] [KIBansStatement] Remember the bug last week (September 28th) with the Azteca Raid Chests? [^] Today, One month suspensions have gone out[1.] to many involved in the Azteca Raid Chest exploit. Here's the tweet where KI announced this.
^TL;DR: The second chance chests for the Azteca Raid spawned at the beginning before completion. Naturally this led to lots of people hitting up Hunhau's (unintentionally spawned) Chest before the Raid was taken down. This is KingsIsle's response. You can find a video on this topic here.
[P101] In other news, Pirate101's test realm update has gone live, featuring the 'Wheels within Wheels Update'.
[LP] Files update for the hotfix to fix Raids and the Khrysalis Burrower pity crafter. The resulting V_r742917.Wizard_1_520 is as a result not that impressive, with the Veterans Day item being the only notable thing.
[NewPack] [HalloweenPack] The Halloween Pack for this year, the Freaky Floramancer Pack is released to the Crown Shop today! Check out our entry on it.
[LoyaltyStoreRefresh] The loyalty store is refreshed for October 2023! That's the Moon Elegant being re-run, and the new "Freaky Floramancer Pack".
(1/8) Boots of the Night -> Vest of the Night
(2/8) Super Decaversary Pack -> Freaky Floramancer Pack [New!]
(7/8) Gardening Benefit (1h) ->Fishing Benefit (1h)
#
Oct 3: Two Bundles Leaked
Tuesday, October 3rd, 2023 (ii): [BundleLeak] [PolarisRevLeak] [OutbackBundleLeak] Combo! Gamestop have leaked two bundles today. The physical card is found in stores, but due to a printing mix-up the codes would redeem for the Polarian Revolutionary Bundle instead for the time being!
# September 2023
#
Sep 29: Wallaru Teaser 7
Friday, September 29th 2023 (ii/TRT): [TRTease] [Wallaru] [FallTR2023-Teaser8] [WallaruTeaser-7] KingsIsle drop our 7th Wallaru Teaser and there is a lot to unpack! First, we got a few more images, including the Bing Bang Boomerang shop and a Koala.
There's also an amazing lore drop below! It looks like the plot is painting us as a villain.
"But if you listen closely - and to the right people - you'll learn there's a darker side to The Wizard. They're said to have spread the forbidden Shadow Magic to the Spiral and danced on the comet that still rains upon Azteca. They were also present for revolutions on both Polaris and Karamelle.
These may all be rumors, but it's enough to make the Spiral wary whenever a student of Ravenwood crosses their threshold."
#
Sep 28: AZ Raid Chest Drama
Entry information is superseded by a future entry.
This entry is superseded by a later future entry - please see the entry of October 4th 2023 - AZ Raid Bans for updated information.
Thursday, September 28th 2023 (iiii): [LP] [KILive] [Bugs] [MajorBugs] [AZRaidChestsGlitch2023] The day starts off with a simple files patch - V_r742651.Wizard_1_520 - and finishes off with one of the most impactful bugs seen yet.
Let's start off with the most significant yet. So, as it turns out, the latest patch broke the Crying Sky Raid, in that all the second chance chests and the crafter spawned at the beginning!
Naturally, people started making bad financial decisions, spreading the Quetzals around and grabbing as much gear as they can.
By 00:34 UTC on 09/29/23, the Raids were completely disabled.
2. V_r742651.Wizard_1_520 (September 28th, 2023)
🚀 An interesting patch, with the #1 Highlight being General Lightbane ! The free alternative to opening the Burrower's Rebellion Pack. The update also includes multiple Raid nerfs, and finally, a bucketload of spoilers! Here are the notes.
Public / Notes
General Lightbane, free alternative to the Burrower's Rebellion Pack!
Boss rematch changes:
Malistaire spawns correct level Sylvia
Oni gambits can be countered and less frequent.
Lord Nightshade's global cannot be dispelled.
Max level gear no longer drops at lower levels.
Raid nerfs:
Improved the spawn rate of cacao pods + reduced mana drain impact (Misfortune Wisp)
Removed balance minions from High Priest combats + reduced health of creeper mobs.
Reduced likelihood of shadow-enhanced hits in mob decks
and more, this is not a complete list.
Misc:
PvP Gear recipes have been tweaked to facilitate crafting at lower ranks
Many Maycasts have been disabled or lowered in cast rate in PvP. PvE cast rate is unaffected.
Burrowing Bane increased to 3 pips + 1 Life pip with a corresponding increase in damage
Spoilers / Leaks
Freaky Floramancer Pack
The Freaky Floramancer Pack is implemented into the game today!
- Gamescom was a **little talking to press and a lot of talking business.** They talked with at least 50 different groups, and so picked up tons of potential partners.
Then they flew out to PAX, a little bit of business, and a lot of press and community. They introduced Wizard101 and Pirate101 to the people there.
They had many comments about the game's influence on people's childhood. In fact, one game developer from another booth came over and said “They’re in games because of their game.”
State of the Games
Wizard101
(NA) They’ve dropped Wallaru teasers on the micro-site most Fridays. They’ll have more to talk about next month, potentially after an upcoming update.
(EU) Working on payment options, they’ve hit a major snag that’s not within their control. Working to resolve the issues, and will keep you posted.
(EU) Steam. They’re working to make it a reality, but it’s taking time due to backend complications.
(EU) Fall update coming, which should bring EU up to NA’s equivalent of April 2022.They are still on their quest to catch up, and have made great progress since acquiring EU.
Pirate101
• Sinbad Part 3 represents a milestone. They didn't commit to the story, and it was left in a spot where it could be the conclusion. The Sinbad Chapters bean as an experiment, to see what they could create, and to get people working on Pirate.
• Sinbad was going to be a side project, but things accelerated (especially w/Steam). They decided to stop waiting on story content, but they'll have episodes instead of books. In Sinbad Chapter 3, they wrap the story up, mention that the story is beginning, and "El Dorado".
Section 1 - Wizard101 North America
Microsite: More phases are planned for the website. This is Phase 1, with phases planned for test realm and live launch, and will keep expanding the concept for future updates.
P101 on new Macs: Partners are working on fixes for some issues, so they'll keep you posted.
In terms of lore books - they did float around the idea of actual books. However, they are aware that a common issue with returning players is being unfamiliar with the story. So, it would be nice to have an "in-game means" of where you are, what's going on, and what the story is.
“Revelation” is one word to describe Wallaru. You’re going to learn lots of stuff, and lots of questions will be answered. Sandiago will be a big part of Wallaru, and his mysteries will be uncovered by the end of Wallaru.
A clarification from the writers
Wallaru is based on Australia, and Cool Ranch is based on the Old West. They both take place in a “semi-arid” environment and "are at the back half of the 19th Century", so there will be similarities. But, they are not linked. It shares no places, no NPCs, and it has its own plot.
This is addressed as there have been complaints of reuse in the past, but the Outback area is being built completely from scratch. There's a good reason why we're going Wallaru.
Karl and Sam will create a presentation where they talk about the art in Wallaru, inspirations, sources, what they were aiming for, concepts, etc. It’ll happen before they go to test realm.
Hope to update gardening one day, but no immediate plans. Thoughts on what you want to see changed can still be considered.
Bringing back longer dungeons like The Labyrinth? Plans are being discussed. Just wait.
Small pieces of information
Judgement is voiced by Falmea.
The Eye of History of the Bartleby Plushie can be removed, to allow players to match their progression.
There's a hat for P101's Anniversary that they're excited about + they plan to do a pass on the companions.
Heroes of Lemuria Pack coming to EU (Nov), Pet Trainers Bundle scheduled for October 11th*
*It didn't make the translation pass, so they had to hold it back. They now have the translations
Section 3 - Stats with Decius
1% of Pirate101 Players have each class maxed out.
Most famous schools: Death for both NA (23%) and EU (20%).
Most "infamous": Myth (10% US, 9% EU).
We even got a pie chart! Take that all in!
Open me for the image summary!
Wednesday, September 27th 2023 (ii/MS): [Vinyls] [MalistaireVinyl] The Malistaire Drake Vinyl is announced as 'coming soon' for the 15th Anniversary.
Tuesday, September 26th 2023 (ii): [DevDiary] [15thBirthdayDevDiary] KingsIsle release a Dev Diary for the 15th Anniversary. Here's the announcement. The developers generally talk about their time at KI.
[P101] In other news, the P101 Test Realm is up today! Here are the notes including the finale of the Sinbad Chapters
Monday, September 25th 2023 (ii): [Sanctions] [KIBansStatement] Following some rumours that players were banned for no reason, KI issues a statement that the bans concern the use of 3rd party exploit tools.
Wizards and Pirates, we've taken action against a handful of accounts due to the use of 3rd party exploit tools.
Friday, September 22nd 2023 (ii/TRT): [TRTease] [Wallaru] [FallTR2023-Teaser7] [WallaruTeaser-6] Our sixth teaser is here! A story entry from Boris Tallstaff - My Wallaru Walkabout: Oh, the Places I Will Go!... This one impressively includes an area teaser! - Billabong Resort. Here's the announcement and teaser page.
Highlighted in the image are things considered to be important, including the fact that this'll be a multi-part oddysey. Thfis is notably similar to the Instagram teasers for Lemuria, with Stallion Quartermane's Journal.
Wallaru. Not a world we all think about much. It hasn’t launched any empires or invented any magic. It wasn’t lost to history or destroyed by a Titan. It’s just there, a strange little place floating on its own… ephemeral as a dream, at any moment real and forgotten.
Or at least that’s been its history. Wallaru has intermittently caught the attention of other worlds, only for that focus to slip away. For example, Marleybone first reached the land of Roos and Koalas during the reign of King Ruffles II. The monarch even visited the fabled Outback himself… and was promptly eaten by land sharks. Thus ending Marleybone’s interest in the world.
Similarly, the ancient skyfaring Kroks found Wallaru and tried to add it to their expansive empire, much as they did the homeworld of the Manders. They were repeatedly punched by Kangaroos until they went away.
Wizard Wallaru Logo
The modern Wallaru is trying to be more open, trying to invite the citizens of the Spiral to come and visit with promises of rugged adventures, beautiful vistas and of course… a chance to, as they say, “Seize the Dream.”
So join me on my multi-part odyssey into the wilds of Wallaru, as I embark on their ancient tradition of the Walkabout, enduring deserts and monsters to somehow make all my dreams come true.
This is “My Wallaru Walkabout….” This is my adventure.
#
Sep 13: Wallaru Teaser 5
Wednesday, September 13th 2023 (ii/TRT): [TRTease] [Wallaru] [FallTR2023-Teaser6] [WallaruTeaser-5] Perhaps the most interesting teaser yet! Our fourth Wallaru Teaser is a TikTok Teaser. Here's the announcement. Interestingly, while we've got some things we've seen before, here are some things of note!
Things to note in this teaser:
00:00 - 00:59 | The first public release of the Wallaru Outback Combat
00:00 - 00:11 | Some sort of starry zone, along with Sybil VO 'The spiral will always need its Scion.'
00:12 - 00:21 | Concept art we've already seen, plus one we haven't yet.
00:22 - 00:22 | Stallion Quartermane VO - "Haha! That's how you adventure"
00:31 - 00:31 | Some cute Koala concept art, riding some sort of Mount.
00:33 - 00:36 | "Unknown VO: "You enjoy that a little too much, big guy."
00:37 - 00:43 | "Dingo" concept art (enemy - text says "gimme yer stuff"). Unknown VO: "Shall we join forces?"
00:43 - 00:50 | Unknown mob concept art.
00:54 - 00:58 | Unknown VO: "See you soon, hehehe" followed by fade out with Wallaru Logo.
Monday, September 11th 2023 (ii/PL): [Plushie] [BartlebyPlushie] The Bartleby Plushie is announced for W101's 15th Birthday! They did say we had a plushie on the way for it in March's KI Live. Unsurprisingly, it's a Jumbo Plush!
Friday, September 8th 2023 (ii): [60for60] [BDAY] [15thBday] Birthday 60-for-60 Sale! This one is running from today until September 11th 2023. The last 60-for-60 was on June 9th 2023.
Thursday, September 7th 2023 (ii/LS): [LoyaltyStoreRefresh] The loyalty store is refreshed for September 2023! Surprise, the Marleybone Car is made available for 12 Tokens!
(*) They forgot to apply the Base Power Pip Chance in Raids, so you got 60% - not seeing those yellow pips anytime soon!
#
Sep 5: Free Membership!
Tuesday, September 5th 2023 (iii): [FreeMembership] 15 Days of Free Member for the 15th Birthday! Running until September 19th, here's the hugely popular anouncement for this.
[Elixirs] [Bugs] [CL-WE-CostError] So, as it turns out, the Celestia World Elixir was not intended to be priced at 15000 Crowns, and was set to 4500 Crowns. This was followed by a statement from the Community Team on the test realm discord.
#
Sep 4: Wallaru Teaser 4
Monday, September 4th 2023 (ii): [TRTease] [Wallaru] [FallTR2023-Teaser5] [WallaruTeaser-4] Wow, they are on a roll. Third consecutive day of Wallaru Teasers. This one - Live The Dream - shows some sort of creature bathing in what is likely "The Dreaming"^. Here's the announcement of the teaser, which is also available on the microsite.
Sunday, September 3rd 2023 (ii): [Wallaru] [TRTease] [FallTR2023-Teaser4] [WallaruTeaser-3] What's better than 1 Wallaru Teaser? 2 Wallaru Teasers! We have our third* teaser - Visit Wallaru today. That's Hope Springs, the Wallaru Hub.^ Also posted to the microsite. Cool!
[^] as seen by the world door.
#
Sep 2: Wallaru Teaser 2
Saturday, September 2nd 2023 (ii/TRT): [Wallaru] [TRTease] [FallTR2023-Teaser3] [WallaruTeaser-2] 🎉 That's our first teaser on the Wallaru Microsite! Captioned Wallaru Is Calling You , with what appears to be The Outback. Curiously, there's also the "Wallaru Tourism Agency" at the bottom of the poster.
#
Sep 1: 15th Bday + Wallaru 1
Friday, September 1st 2023 (ii/WL): [TRTease] [BDAY] [Wallaru] [WallaruTeaser-1] [FallTR2023-Teaser2] [15thBirthday] [WallaruMicrosite] Wizard101's 15th Birthday kicks off today! As usual, not much for the first day. However, see the new Grandmother Raven Monument below.
Wallaru Microsite
So, um, surprise! Remember the Novus Microsite where they sold some stuff? This time, they're taking another approach, similar to Polaris Teasers, where they'll reveal Wallaru Teasers on a brand new micro-site!! That is the new Wallaru logo, and some concept art. Here's the announcement of the micro-site.
# August 2023
Thursday, August 31st 2023 (iii): [LP] It's the long awaited live patch!! Following the early notes, the live servers go down for [V_r740730.Wizard_1_520]. And, what a patch. From expected changes like the burst heal ban and the shadow enhanced spells change to leaks like roughly a dozen new banners! Read more below.
[Elixirs] The "Celestia World Elixir" (15,000 Crowns) is released to the Crown Shop along with the Group Elixirs. Lots of people... were unhappy at the price, which was later corrected to 4,500 Crowns.
V_r740730.Wizard_1_520 (August 31st, 2023)
🚀 An interesting patch! They made all the Shadow enhanced spells cost two Shadow Pips in PvP, and you'll never guess how they did it! *. Read on for more information.
Public / Notes
Burst heals banned, including Unicorn, which left some Life wizards quite upset!
Shadow Enhanced Spells now cost 2 Shadow Pips in Advanced Content, utilising Spellements^
Boss Rematches now use Challenge Mode rules and are Scaled to Level 50.
New [dropped gear set]https://twitter.com/W101Spoilers/status/1698035264818434186) has been added to the updated boss rematches!
Derby Pet Kiosk is back, but Ranked still disabled.
Monday, August 28th 2023 (iiii/EM): 1815 UTC | [Offline] [EmergencyMaintenance] [Maintenance][LP] The live NA servers are taken down at 1830 UTC today for "a hotfix update. " (fixing the Crown Shop as hinted at by Sparck). The servers are back up by 1900 UTC with a new patch: [V_r740593.Wizard_1_520_0_Live]. Nothing to report.
Remember to Click D to cycle through these images!
#
Aug 25: Crown Shop Revert
Friday, August 25th 2023 (iii): [Withdrawn] [Bugs] [MajorBug] [Crash] [CSWithdrawalAug2023] Remember the crown shop crashing back on August 22nd? Well, KI thought they fixed it, and added new things to the shop. Unfortunately, they didn't fix it, so they had to revert the shop and withdraw the promotions later.
Wednesday, August 23rd 2023 (ii): [LP] A patch to the live servers today! Hotfix, and we got the notes early! The notes are below for [V_r740271.Wizard_1_520_0_Live]. Interestingly, there'd be an edit later confirming that the Derby Kiosk was not actually returned.
V_r740271.Wizard_1_520_0_Live - Leaks
New Sun Burnt Gobbler released the same day but removed due to a Crown Shop crash.
Tuesday, August 22nd 2023 (iii/CR): [Bugs] [MajorBug] [Crash] [CSCrash2023] [Hobgobbler] Quite an... "eventful" day today. First, the Crown Shop was updated with the Hobgobbler, which was on sale for 20,000 Gold! Then the shop started crashing. Read more below!
~15:45 UTC: The Crown Shop is updated with the Hobgobbler Mount, and other various Gobbler stuff, for a Gobbler Sale. It would appear that the Hobgobbler was not supposed to be available, as it was previously exclusive to 2019 Death Deckathalon victors.
~16:15 UTC: Reports of the Crown Shop crashing the game when opened start to come in... This only affected some people.
~19:17 UTC: The crown shop is reverted to the state prior (August 21st), so this issue is resolved.
Much of the evidence we have of this, is on the Test Realm Discord.
Continued - Aug 23
The crown shop is reportedly crashing again, leading to the removal of the newly added Sun Burnt Gobbler pet and reverting the shop once more.
Monday, August 21st 2023 (ii): [Drama] New day, new drama! AwesomeTheSauce creates a video addressing some slander he has had to deal with on Reddit (r/Wizard101). The video is embedded below.
#
Aug 16: CSC 2023 Winners
Wednesday, August 16th 2023 (ii): [CSC2023] The winners of the Community Spiral Cup 2023 are announced! After a contest which began on July 17th 2023 and ended today, the winners have emerged.
Congratulations to:
Shadow Demons for the W101 Victory!
Oh, and Wiki101 for the Pirate101 victory.
The CSC actually concluded yesterday, but the winners announcement was today.
#
Aug 10: PAX West Info
Thursday, August 10th 2023 (iii): [LP] Files update for a patch to the Wizard101 NA Live Servers. Very minor changes in the [V_r739602.Wizard_1_520_0_Live] patch. Not really an amusing patch.
[KI@PAXWest2023] but more importantly we get additional PAX West News!! They'll be at Booth #745. They'll also sell Plushies, an exclusive T-Shirt, and a Piggle pin, along with new bundles in the cart for those unable to attend. The bundles - "PAX West 2023 Swag Bundle" feature new "Ninja PAX Cap and T-Shirt" ($10) or the Piggle Pin Housing Item ($5).
Wednesday, August 9th 2023 (ii): [Continued][CSCleanupReverted] The decision to remove various housing items from the crown shop, announced on August 1st 2023 has now been temporarily reverted, pending full implementation of a plan to transfer the items to vendors.
Friday, August 4th 2023 (iii): [LoyaltyStoreRefresh] The "Loyalty Store" is refreshed for August 2023! This includes the completion of the Sun Elegant re-run, and the first ever Gardening Benefit Elixir to be available from this source!
Thursday, August 3rd 2023 (ii): [LP] [EPN] [ImmolateTrainable] Live realm goes down for a patch to the files: [V_r739213.Wizard_1_520_0_Live]. Fortunately, we know exactly what's in this patch as we got the notes a day early! A few spell changes, including Immolate being trainable at L22. Oh, and fixing the Grizzleheim Blocker.
#
Aug 1: CS Cleanup Drama
Tuesday, August 1st 2023 (iii): [Controversy] [CSCleanupAnnouncement] New month, new controversy! KingsIsle announces a crown shop clean-up, removing many housing items from the Crown Shop at the end of August... including the furniture sets.
Fortunately, at 11:14pm UTC, they added a further statement that the housing items would be rotated, and the world furniture sets would move to world housing vendors.
Continued - Aug 9: The decision to remove housing items from the crown shop as planned is reverted to allow progress to be made on the move to vendors. Entry
[RaidRoundtable] The "Raid Roundtable" is announced with Final Bastion, scheduled for Thu, August 3rd 2023 at 4pm CT.
Monday, July 31st 2023 (ii/P101): [P101] The Pirate101 Test Realm is online today! Here are the notes. As expected, a lot that was teased, including the MooShu Stagecoach and UI Scaling.
Friday, July 28th 2023 (ii/P101): [P101] [P101SummerUpdate2023-Teaser3] The third teaser for the upcoming Pirate101 Test Realm. It's obviously teasing a Skeleton Key Boss. Pretty cool teaser.
Thursday, July 27th 2023 (ii/KI): [KILive] KI Live for July 2023 takes place today. Not much, but plenty of long answers!! Notably, there won't be a KI Live in August (due to PAX West). The P101 Test Realm is also confirmed for next week! Summary below.
KingsIsle Live (July 27th, 2023)
TL;DR:
Pirate101 Test Realm is next week (w/c Monday, July 31st 2023)
No KI Live in August, but there will be a bunch of impromptu streams from PAX West!
Arc ending will be very cinematic + more Wallaru hints.
Translations for next EU Update have begun, along with scoping for Steam integration.
358,796 animus extracted by one person (though they later clarified this may be lifetime Animus.)
State of the Games
Generic
As for European Conventions, some of them will be at Gamescom, but it will be a partners & press closed booth. Perhaps they'll do one in the future.
Europe
🗂 Wishlist on EU is fixed as of last week. Translations have begun for the next update, and started scoping Steam integration. Initial stages of both so not much to talk about.
Pirate101
🗂UI Scaling is coming to Pirate101, as teased! The Mooshu Stagecoach was also shown again. They also mentioned one "main feature" that has not been teased yet.
🗂 Test realm for Pirate101 is confirmed to be next week! (w/c 31st July)
Section 1 - Wizard101 North America
Working on the process of bringing gift cards to Europe. First big step was getting the Heavenly Palace Bundle in place.
Planning to accept new people into Extra Credits in a few months, but you can sign up at any time to be ready.
While having a T5 Beastform has its benefits (more spells / larger hand), they still want it so that a regular form can compete. Good for new players. It's possible to add more incentives for T5, but not considering a health increase.
Wisp of Misfortune in Beastmoon? They are similar, but Mayhem is more casual. Raids are designed to be overwhelming, and they don't want to scare away their Beastmoon players, but hazards can be fun and exciting, so maybe in a future map.
The Raid Tome was originally quite a simple execution, and they're looking to make it better, maybe something like tabs to jump around different Raids, or potentially level-scaling preview for Raids!
Welcome to Calamity! She is introduced as a Designer. She works on systems - like PvP, Derby, economy, etc. She started playing the game when it came out, and it was a massive nostalgia thing for her to work on it now. She had the task to come up with names for the name change.
"Really proud to be part of a system (name change) that means so much to trans players, players of different cultures, backgrounds, and hearing people speak on how much it means to them to align their Wizard better with their identity."
Name change section ft Calamity:
Question: How did you come up with new names?
Most new names were taken from a forum post a few years back. That had like 10 pages of names! There was a lot to consider with balancing demographic names, both with what they had and wanted to add.
They wanted to pull from many cultures, as well as adding names of varying masculinity/femininity or gender neutral, all while keeping the fantasy style they have, and satisfying both categories of people, those who want to align their character to their real identity, or those who want to have a roleplay/fantasy character identity.
Last name was a lot of fantasy words that were pulled from pop culture references, trying to think of the references people could make, and was amazed at the great combos she saw when the feature hit live - some she hadn't even thought of.
Fun fact: Calamity was responsible for finding a lot of fun names, that perhaps shouldn't have been available.
Question: How long did name change take to happen?
Can't speak for programming, but on the design side, it was a multi-stage process. They essentially doubled the amount of names in-game, some from the names suggestions forum post, the rest had to be pulled from other places. It took a while to have the list, and then they had to review it.
They had some challenges implementing names as a tool to add names hadn't been used ever, as all the names came with the original release, and none had been added since. So, it took a bit of time to fix that tech. The biggest challenge is that there is a hard limit of 250 names in each slot.
A slot being first female/first male, middle, and last. That was a hard limit, and while there's plenty of names out there they'd love to accommodate, that's the limit. They also don't think it would be a good player experience to scroll through thousands of names for one.
It was a joy to wake up for the first day of test and see "Olive Garden" on Reddit. Should've seen it coming but didn't, and they spent all day laughing at the hilarious name combinations in their Team Discord!
Crying Sky Raid Section
The writers came up with the "Crying Sky Raid". One of the improvements to this raid over the last, was the connection of this Raid to the Spiral lore. There's a pre-quest, dialogue in the raid, and even lore tidbits on the Tablets within the Raid!
They highly recommend to check out the AZ Raid Pre-quest, even if you don't plan on Raiding. The "Crying Sky" is the name of the Azteca Cult that is worshipping Xibalba, and the "Big Bad" of the Raid. So you'll have to fight them throughout the raid.
They ended up picking Azteca because they wanted an Arc 2 World, and Azteca's environment worked well with they planned. They also thought it'd be interesting for players to see what happened to Azteca post-Xibalba. Writers were excited for that!
As for the cheats, they came from Cam raiding with his guild, figuring out what/what isn't fun, and using that to create a Raid unlike any seen before - pushing the limits on what their systems can do, and pushing players limits on what they can do.
Wallaru Hints
Question: What are you excited for players to experience in Wallaru?
Ratbeard: Delayed gratification
Sparck: Totally ready to "go on vacation" at a beautiful resort.
Sam: Definitely the wombats, especially the combat wombats.
Kyle: Cool ending to this Arc. Very cinematic.
Falmea: It will be "everything you've ever dreamed of"
Question: Something fun about the next world?
Sam: There is a moment towards the end, that deals with a Starry Night Sky. It's gonna be wonderful.
Falmea: The puns and pop culture references. Would love to vacation to Wallaru.
Section 2 - Stats with Decius
The most animus extracted by one person? 358,796. Though, they did clarify that perhaps that could be lifetime.
#We need the april fools wisp mount, make it happen!
Open me for the image summary!
#
July 26: Summer TR Live!
Wednesday, July 26th 2023 (iiii/LIV): [TR-DOWN] [520] Test realm has gone live! The Summer 2023 Test Realm lasted for 16 Days - going up on Monday, July 10th 2023 and going down today! Test realm could be accessed for 12 of those days. Highlights include the Crying Sky Raid, Name Change, Challenge Mode buffs, and a lot more. Here are the notes.
Tuesday, July 25th 2023 (iii/TP): [TP] Not even 24 hours later, and we have another patch! This one - [V_r738978.WizardDev]. Apart from the Revolutionary's Gear and Dual School TC being added to Jordo Mistborn, I wouldn't say there's much.
#Other events
[Downtime] It is announced that Test Realm is going live!! This would mean that test realm lasted 16 Days (or twelve not counting weekends) from when it went up.
[CrownsRewards] The Yuletide in July Crowns Rewards Event is here! Take a look at the rewards below. The final reward is at 60,000 Crowns, the Wintercrystal Wand from the July 2019 Winter SOF and "The Cold Cut".
Monday, July 24th 2023 (iii/TP): [TP] Surprise, it's another test realm patch! Our fifth update is [V_r738954.WizardDev]. Not a terribly massive patch. Probably the only notable thing is Earthquake finally returning! That, or maybe the new Wallaru NPC Names. Oh, and Rebirth TC is back to No-PvP. A few spells also gained level restrictions. No notes.
[CIJ] Christmas Yuletide in July is back! A little later than other years, but still in July.
#
July 20: AOE's are back!
Thursday, July 20th 2023 (iii): [TP] Test realm updates for the third patch: [V_r738827.WizardDev]. As mentioned yesterday, AoE Spells have returned to Advanced Content. That, and the Level Scaling Kiosk teased on Ratbeard's stream is here... Notes below!! Oh, and the Divide Path for the new AOE Spellements is now gone.
Wednesday, July 19th 2023 (ii): [TRNews] Massive news out of the TR Disc... drumroll.. The AoE ban is being reverted!! Yes, it is true. Confirmed by Artie in the TR Discord, and further by Ratbeard on that day's stream. See below for more info.
#
July 18: Burrower's Rebellion
Tuesday, July 18th 2023 (iii): [NewPack] The Burrower's Rebellion Pack is out today in the Crown Shop!Interestingly, this is before test realm has gone live... It features some decent gear, an amazing wand for stitching, and of course, all the new spells! Check out our entry here!
6:08pm UTC | [Offline] [W101EU] [Bugs] Wizard101 EU servers are taken down for emergency maintenance. The servers are not back until 7:29pm UTC. Well, I say taken down, the players were suddenly booted off.
Friday, July 14th 2023 (ii): [TRTease] [MiddleTR-Tease] [SummerTest2023] Ratbeard teases some new dual school blades! This was on stream, and they will only be TC. The rest of the parameters are still under consideration.
[P101] [P101SummerUpdate-Teaser1] The first teaser for an incoming Pirate101 Updatedrops!. That appears to be a Mooshu Stagecoach...
Wednesday, July 12th 2023 (iii): [TP] [LP] [SummerTest2023] [MultiPatch] What's better than one update to the files? two updates to the files! Both test realm and live realm got a patch today.
The test realm patch is far more significant. You can read more on [V_r738464.WizardDev]below.
V_r738464.WizardDev (July 12th, 2023)
🚀 Not a bad patch, from the new Monk of Mourning spell, and, uh, well, I suppose that's it... They did remove some suspicious new names like Ebony and Disaster. Here are the notes.(archive).. They were also posted to Discord.
Public / Notes
Problematic name combinations cough have been removed, including Disaster, Nia and Ebony.
This time, there was [actually a Test Realm Discord] for these features. Teasing began on May 30th, 2023 with the Dyvim Spells teaser, and finished today, with test realm going up!
Noteworthy: Name change!! How long have we wanted this?
So, it turns out they put the incomplete Wallaru pre-quest into test realm! No voice lines at all, and it was later removed, but that's some pretty interesting lore...
Crikey Cyrus [WizQst188965]
-- Quest: Crikey Cyrus [INCOMPLETE WizQst188965] --
Sandiago: Tell me, Wizard, what do you know of Wallaru? Long has it existed in the outskirts of the Spiral and long has it fascinated explorers.
Zander: This is because of the Dreaming, a physical substance generated deep in the Outback said to incept strange and wondrous thoughts in visitors.
Zander: For generations, my people guided others to the source of the Dreaming, to take from its waters and be inspired. Sandiago was one such explorer.
Sandiago: The Dreaming instills one with a sense of self and purpose, a means to become all we could be. This is the clarity your Dasein needs.
Zander: Unfortunately, to enter the Dreaming unprepared is to go mad and the means of preparation are limited these days.
Sandiago: But the Arcanum is blessed with a specific resource most lack, one that will shield our psyches. Come with me to the Tree of Knowledge.
???: Once you have recovered, WLorem ipsum kangaroo vegemite koala didgeridoo
???: Ah, Wizard, WLorem ipsum kangaroo vegemite koala didgeridoo
#Funny names!
So, did you know that they added a large amount of new names? New first names like... "Ocean" , and new last names like "Disaster"... do you see where this is going?
Friday, July 7th 2023 (iii/TR): [TRTease] [Summer2023TR-Teaser8] Our final teaser for the test realm... This one shows the Azteca Raid "Crying Sky Raid", along with some rather ominous VO, and was a video teaser uploaded to YouTube. Here's the announcement on Twitter.
Wednesday, July 5th 2023 (ii): [CommunitySpiralCup] [CSC2023] The 2023 Spiral Cup kicks off! Interestingly, ten teams of ANY size for Wizard101, contrary to the announcement of CSC. It will run from July 17th 2023 - August 14th 2023. The winner gets a Custom Mount, like last year.
Thursday, June 29th 2023 (iii/KI): [KILive] [TRTease] [Summer2023TR-Teaser7] [KI@PAXWest2023] [FallTR2023-Teaser1] June 2023's KI Live arrives. All the usual, like a name change teaser., and also a bit of the unusual, like a cryptic Fall 2023 Test Realm Teaser! Full notes below...
KingsIsle Live (June 29th, 2023)
TL;DR:
Test realm will be a few days after Independence Day! We also got a very unexpected teaser for the Fall TR.
KI will have a booth at PAX West this September.
New names coming out with name change!
Three new challenge mode encounters coming with TR!
🗂 Test realm is getting close. Soon.It will be a few days after 4th July (Independence Day). They don't want to undermine their own efforts to tease the Summer Update, so they teased something for the fall instead (Not Wallaru related... Doors)?
Europe
🗂 Lemuria and FTUE on EU! They're working really hard to catch up on worlds. Since they took over EU, there are two new worlds, and they're hoping to speed up.
🗂 Hoping to have Novus out by the Winter. Then they'll be one behind as NA would've just had Wallaru. One year at this pace and they'll be less than an update behind by the end of 2024 - the ultimate goal.
🗂 No resources to continue supporting translations for Greek and Polish servers. However, they'll keep getting content. All mainline Wizard City VO is now in English to combat a weird mix of local/non local VO. Likely going forward, they'll standardize English VO with localized text for EU.
🗂 Investigating Steam for W101 EU, they understand the opportunity, and they want to do it, but it'll require a lot of resources.
Pirate101
🗂It's on Steam! They wanted to recruit new players, and they've done that! In the last month, they've had 5x the amount of new players compared to the month prior, and double the daily logins. Excited about people playing and want to keep that momentum.
🗂 They're working on the next update for the Summer, and the return of the P101 Test Realm was announced! Also breaking ground on the Fall Update.
🗂 Happy to be doing regular updates for Pirate, and hope to ramp up as they go, increasing the content every update.
Section 1 - Wizard101 North America
KingsIsle will have a booth at PAX West!! They hope to get their brand out there, show the game to new people. They'll sell retired plushies to any players that turn up and they'll have some exclusive PAX West themed KI Merch.
There will be one new Vinyl Figure in 2023. It will launch for the 15th Anniversary. 'A lot of people will be really happy with what it is.'
Where would you want to live in the Spiral and why?
Kayly: Toss-up between WC and AV. Solid places, with variety of people & temperate climate.
Joel: Aquila! Beautiful shoreline, nice and green, clouds but not too cloudy, looks beautiful.
Ratbeard: Front row seats on Xibalba (ha!), but going with Cool Ranch, cool skyways & relaxing.
Artie: WC because that's where the people at. Would say Karamelle, but he'd get the beetus.
Falmea: Celestia!! But only the seaside bit on The Floating Lands. In P101, Mooshu.
New names coming with the name change feature! Please test them as adding new names is not as easy as it sounds. Ratbeard tried to do it when he first started and broke everyone's names. So he handed this task to the new hires this time!
A gender change will also cause a name change, as names are stored as integers. If your name is #14 on the names table for Male, it will switch to #14 on the table for Female. They did try to add gender-neutral names to help alleviate this.
Long answers segment (Team PvP, Raids)
Re: Team PvP and Tournaments
Their intention is to bring back Team PvP and Tournaments. Focusing on advanced combat, perfecting current PvP before branching out. No use building on a shaky foundation. The feedback on the season is good, and some things they're pushing (like Archmastery) are bearing fruit.
They feel like they're close, and they have a roadmap of things to "perfect" in existing PvP (like the Elo System), and that keeps pushing out Team PvP. Though it is part of their plans and there's stuff that needs to happen in the Fall first, like re-evaluating Jewels & Talents.
Re: PvP vs PvE
Don't consider PvP to be "in competition" with PvE.
PvP is the embodiment of advanced combat. It attacks some things people criticize in PvE. They know that people enjoy existing PvE, but that also some don't. They more or less reacted to do that, with spellements Path A being more vanilla, and Path B being advanced combat..
They are separating the two, but it was important to come up with combat that enforces different roles, and creates more skillful gameplay (deck, pet, gear, etc). They'll have three new challenge mode encounters in the Summer.
Everything happening in PvP is part of a roadmap for normal gameplay - learning here & applying there.
Re: Raid every summer?
That's the plan. All three major updates in the year have a different focus. They recognise that the Raid is niche (guild required, and a pretty good guild too), so they are looking at advanced content, and using the Raid as a place to build unique content and puzzles.
They are trying to move away from combat cheats, which isn't possible yet (work ongoing in the background), but the Raid mobs do act more intelligently than the, say, Unicorn Way mobs. They are exploring things in the raid, that they can then downscale for something that's good for 4 Players or Solo.
Investigating improvements to Monster AI, ideally it resembles the PvP experience (play/counter-play, multiple strats, etc). Looking to bring back some dungeon concepts like puzzles, then a challenge version of that could require multiple team-mates doing different things.
No plans to have a Monquista or Skull Island themed gauntlet. Though, Joel does get to inform gauntlets, so... mayhaps. + There are plans for teleportation cantrips, but they don't know when or where.
We get a teaser for Name Change at the end of KI Live! It's in the form of a TikTok. It shows that name change costs 100 Crowns, and the new UI for it. You can change your name with the Magic Mirror.
Section 2 - Wizard101 Europe
They know that a merge of the EU and NA servers is desired, but it is a massive technical challenge (as easy as it sounds). It would require everyone to stop what they're doing, and they'd delay updates for a long time.
Dedicated localization? Right now they're working with Gamigo due to their European expertise. For now, they'll continue as they are, but future population growth or new locales might inform a decision to beef up localization.
Section 3 - Pirate101
s
They are aware that Pirate101 does not look great on 4K, but they need to prioritize a mixture of backend changes (like this), with new features. Can't neglect putting out content, but they are working on this issue.
There is a lore reason as to why Sinbad in P101 looks different to his W101 counterpart, but they want to reveal it in-game. In short, that would be telling.
Section 4 - Stats with Decius
Average number of Wizards per Account of all wizards who have played in 2023 is 3, Median is 2.
14% of all stitches have been stitched by Stitch Tokens since they became a thing.
Open me for the image summary!
Monday, June 26th 2023 (ii): [CommunitySpiralCup] [CSC2023] The challenges for the Community Spiral Cup are announced. 1 There can only be 10 teams of 10 Players for both games. Challenges are below!
The challenges of CSC 2023
Duo Dungeon Speedrunning: Route and complete Castle Darkmoor, Upper Halls, and Graveyard as quickly as possible with a team of two Wizards.
House Decoration: You will be given a design theme and NO LIMITS! However you will only be allowed to send three screenshots, so designing your home around the camera will be important.
Item Collection: Hall of Heroes is waiting. Those who craft a team around beating these fights as quickly as possible will have a leg up in the farming of Merciless items. No reroll chests or Henchmen allowed.
Trailer Challenge: Content creators rejoice. This one has your skillset written all over it. Create a ~15 second trailer highlighting/hyping your favorite content/mechanic/subject/anything to do with Wizard101. Be as broad or specific as you'd like!
Just like last year, art and memes will have weekly categories for points as well! Community members not in the roster of 10 may participate in these points. If you remember, the winner of Pirate101's last CSC took the trophy in large part due to those points. #CSC23
#
June 20th: Lemuria on EU!
Tuesday, June 20th 2023 (ii): [W101EU] [Controversy] Well, we all saw that coming. Lemuria is now on the EU servers![1] Unfortunately not without controversy, as the text & dialogue was not translated for the "Polish and Greek servers due to their low player count.
[CommunitySpiralCup] [CSC2023] The "Community Spiral Cup 2023" is announced today! Signups begin next week. (w/c June 26th). The actual contest will take place from July 17th 2023 - August 14th 2023.
Monday, June 12th 2023 (ii): [TRTease] [Summer2023TR-Teaser6] Teasers! Summer test realm teasers to be specific!! This is our 6th Teaser, and it shows some pretty cool gear - heavily speculated to be the upcoming Raid Gear! It can be seen in the new icons added with the May 31st patch.
Sunday, June 11th 2023 (ii): [TRTease] [Summer2023TR-Teaser5] [Summer2023TR-BMTeaser3] The final beastmoon teaser, and it's the Storm Minotaur! Check out the spells from this one! That's the Beastmoon Teasers done...
Friday, June 9th 2023 (ii): [60for60] 60-for-60 day! Another sale takes place today. This one is through 11/6. The last one was on April 7th, 2023. 5:03pm GMT+1
Thursday, June 8th 2023 (ii): [TRTease] [Summer2023TR-Teaser4] [Summer2023TR-BMTeaser2] More beaastmoon teasers! This time it's the Ice Cyclops shown on stream! One more to go on Sunday...
Last one on Sunday..
Wednesday, June 7th 2023 (ii/TRT): [TRTease] [Summer2023TR-Teaser3] The June 2023 newsletter has arrived - with a Summer Test Realm teaser! The third. It appears to show the Azteca Raid that was leaked as a WIP a while back.
Tuesday, June 6th 2023 (i): [TRTease] [Summer2023TR-Teaser2] [Summer2023TR-BMTeaser1] The Beastmoon teasers have kicked off today, with Cam teasing the upcoming Balance Ninja Pig on stream!
[RMSEvent] The 2nd Rate My Stitch event is out today- Dragonspyre themed!
It's mispelled. Nijna pig, hah.
#
June 1: Pride Month 2023
Thursday, July 1st 2023 (iii/PM): [PrideMonth][PrideMonth2023] As usual, a lot happens for Pride Month. More a lot than usual this time. The Rainbow Piggle Plushie previously teased on KI Live is out!
The Rainbow Piggle Plushie is released, with 50% of profits going to OutRight International. As usual, there's the pride blog post, along with the rainbow standard and banner. Oh, and the Pride Piggle pet is released!, with 100% of profits going to OutRight International. And, the Rainbow Roller is out once more, with the same percentage going to charity.
Wednesday, May 31st 2023 (iii/LPMJ): [LP] The files update for a very huge patch! Among those changes are more than 100 new gear pieces for Dual Schooling! Here are the notes for the [V_r736675.Wizard_1_510] patch.
V_r736675.Wizard_1_510 - May 31st 2023 (Dual Aeon, Summer 2023 SOF)
V_r736675.Wizard_1_510 - May 31st 2023
🎨 Public / Notes (Summary)
🚀 Interesting update, to say the least. An absolutely insane amount of dual school gear, and that's just the Aeon set! Other than that, there's a lot of changes to Tiered Spells, Rhoshambo Nerfs, and much more.
Tuesday, May 30th 2023 (iii): [TRTease] [Summer2023TR-Teaser1] Wow, early! The first Summer 2023 Test Realm teaser arrives![1.] It looks like it's one of the lore pack spells, certainly Storm, featuring Dyvim and some of Khrysalis? Cool.
Thursday, May 25th 2023 (ii): [KILive][TR-Info] KI Live For May 2023 is here! We finally have confirmation on name/gender change for the Summer! Read below for the notes. They also showed us the upcoming Rainbow Piggle Plushie in support of Pride Month.
KingsIsle Live (May 25th, 2023)
TL;DR:
They indeed had Lava Soup and Twelve Flavors of Hawkules. Kyle did drink straight out of a hot sauce bottle, but there was no ghost pepper.
Name and gender change now officially confirmed, it'll be a one-time service per character.
State of the Games
[Wizard101]:
🗂 Working on the Summer Milestone, and also on Wallaru, and other things for the Fall. It's not exactly time to spill the beans, but they can confirm that Name and Gender change is coming with the Summer update! This will be a one-time service for each character.
🗂 Vague hint:
Going to be "a hot dinosaur summer, as long as you keep it casual"
"we'll get the opportunity to get up close and personal with one of the beloved heroes in Arc 2."
Europe
🗂 Lemuria will drop in June before the next KI Live!
🗂 Looking into bringing Wizard101 EU to Steam, it's not trivial and it may be better to spend resources to bring EU up to date, or diverting resources to work on this.
🗂 As for Novus, it's looking like Winter time (December, January, February, etc.)
Pirate101
🗂 Excited to roll out the first of 2023 updates, the Sinbad: The Iron Lotus update. They're happy to continue the Sinbad storyline, there's a huge tower to summit, two new companions, new weapons and accessories, etc.
🗂 The Sinbad Story is now part of the main quest line. Current plan is to drop content "like Sinbad" more often, but not giant worlds like they did in the past (for now). They are brain-storming how they can improve the smaller drops, and as they grow more efficient, the content can grow in size.
🗂 Excited to launch on Steam next week, and significantly ramp up player acquisition efforts. Will talk more about what's coming in a month or two, but for now enjoy the update!
Section 1 - Wizard101 North America
• Partnered with Makeship to make a "Rainbow Piggle Plushie" that will be releasing on June 1st for Pride Month! 50% of the proceeds will be going to OutRight International.
The launch capacity for Extra Credits has been reached! They have to pause acceptance into the program due to the number of people signing up.
Inspiration behind Lightkeeper's Bundle:
House: Joel wanted a house that felt "slightly isolated and lonely". So, Lighthouse.
Pet: They had an idea to use "the light from the lighthouse" and they really liked that.
Mount: Kind of obvious, the submarine.
Gear: Inspired by Old School Diving Outfits
How are characters made? They often start with a pop culture reference, or the story, and the characters will fall in line from that. Or sometimes, that reference will spark an idea or a pun.
Who would you choose to hire from the Spiral Universe?
Falmea: Madame Vadima. Someone who can see the future would be amazing to work with Analysts who do the same thing.
Kayly: The Professor. He can time travel, and if it goes wrong, he can fix it before it does!
When will The Great One from Cyclops Lane return? We don't know, but he is out there, waiting, and could show up at any time.
They are doing something with their music later this year that is not Spotify, but it is a possibility after that
Section 1.5 - Wizard101 Europe
Deluxe Spellemental Pack for EU? Not at this time. Web team is focused on more billing options. It'll happen, but it won't be anytime soon - at least the beginning of next year for this sort of feature.
Pet Trainers Bundle? Soon! Probably this summer.
They want to consider EU Feedback - for example, it might be a challenge to get Guilds & Raids going in EU, so they may look at lowering the population requirement for those.
Section 2 - Pirate101
As mentioned, Sinbad is now part of the Mainline Story, and their eyes are currently on Mainline. They are looking at ways to bring more side-content in as well going forward.
Certainly possible to have loading screens similar to Wizard. It's actually easier to do on Pirate!
Changing origin? Pretty much hardcoded into the character. It would need a massive overhaul to the game to make this happen. It would be easier to give players the benefits of their origin.
Section 3 - Stats with Decius
Here is some data about rare badge ownership that was shared:
Undead Executioner *(Defeat 20,000 Undead)* - 800 Players
The Nullifierest *(Finish Raid 100 Times)* - 360 Players
Castle Inspector *(Rate 5000 Castles)* - 21 Players
Brain Basher *(Defeat Medulla 1000 Times)* - 15 Players
The most badges on one character: 904. Second place is 902.
There are 906 Badges in-game.
688 people have six maxed characters in Pirate101 of every class.
Open me for the image summary!
Friday, May 19th 2023 (iii): [NewPack] The Skyfarer's Hoard Pack is out today in the Crown Shop after it was first introduced to the Loyalty Store [seventeen days ago]. You can check out our entry on this pack here
[KI] KingsIsle also run a campaign, encouraging Wizard101 players to wishlist Pirate101 on Steam and show proof for a chance of Super Packs in Pirate101.
#
May 19: Smojo Code Drama
Friday, May 19th 2023 (iii/IC): [SmojoCrowns] [Controversy] [Controversy+] After May 17th's infinite crowns fiasco, it is discovered that wiztuber and Extra Credits participant smojo had received an infinite crowns code for 60,000 Crowns and abused the hell out of it.Up to 11,000,000 Crowns before he was banned.
It seemed that he had hopes for unban due to being part of Extra Credits. Unfortunately, the fake crowns were used to profit massively off trading, and that probably screwed innocent people over.
#
May 17: Inf Crowns Code
Wednesday, May 17-18th 2023 (ii): [Controversy] [Controversy+] [InfiniteCrownsCode2023-2.5k] Lots of tea today. It started at around 20:09 UTC today, when it was discovered that a code given by a streamer, 9426D2L74763N4M3L38Q, could be infinitely redeemed for 2,500 Crowns. Yep, you heard that right. Insane. This code was subsequently spread everywhere and it wouldn't be long before KI caught wind.
Roughly ten minutes later, the code was disabled, but that was enough time for the brave to gather as much crowns as possible. There was a lot of concern about being banned among the community.
CONTINUED - May 18: KI would issue a public statement the next day,[1] explaining that there would be no bans for those that didn't abuse it. If you redeemed it once, you could keep the crowns. If not, you lost all of the excess crowns. If you abused the code, you got the ban hammer.
If you were gifted with those crowns, the gifted items might be removed.
Tuesday, May 16th 2023 (ii): [Showdowns] [SnackShowdown2023] After a "long" (it was a day) battle, the Lava Soup emerges victorious for Snack Showdown. It will be eaten on KI Live. This concludes Snack Showdown, which began on April 17th, 2023.
Monday, May 15th 2023 (ii): [Showdowns] [SnackShowdown2023] We have reached the final of the Snack Showdown, 29 days after it began. Now, Lava Soup and Frozen Snails compete to win the Snack Showdown as finalists!
Wednesday, May 10th 2023 (ii): [KI] [Community] [KrakenDay] Today is Kraken Day! It's a community event that takes place every 5/10 (Kraken has 510 HP). This time though, they gave away a member code - KRAKEN2023. Below you can see the original code, but once it reached max redemptions, the member elixir was taken out.
Monday, May 8th 2023 (ii): [KI] [ExtraCredits] Do you remember Extra Credits? It was announced during April 2023's KI Live. Today, the first objective has been announced! The objective is to make a video of your favorite pet.
[LightkeepersBundle] [LightkeepersLeak] The "Lightkeeper's Bundle" is spotted in the wild today, and is being activated by Gamestop..
Wednesday, May 3rd 2023 (ii): [LoyaltyStoreRefresh] The loyalty store is refreshed for May 2023 This includes the upcoming Skyfarer's Hoard Pack. You can check out our entry on it!
#
May 2: New RMS Event
Tuesday, May 2nd 2023 (ii): [NewEvent] The very first Rate My Stitch event is here! This one is death themed and allows you to obtain all the items needed to begin crafting the recently introduced upgrades.
Monday, May 1st 2023 (ii): [FreeFirstArc] Free First Arc is announced throughout the whole of May! This includes all the worlds up to Dragonspyre. Not much more today, though.
# April 2023
Friday, April 28th 2023 (ii): [LP] Files update for a very impressive live patch -[V_r735422.Wizard_1_510]. Bank UI Refresh, Night Mire Monstrology & Leaks O' Plenty, this update has it all! Here are the notes.[1]
[Bugs] The new PvP Season, April 2022, starts early!. Players are told not to queue for this accidentally available season.
V_r735422.Wizard_1_510 (April 28th, 2023) | Bank UI, Night Mire Monstrology, Skyfarer's Hoard, etc.
Thursday, April 27th 2023: [KILive] April 2023's KI Live is here!! In this one, Extra Credits is announced - a content creator program... and Pirate101 gets a Sinbad Teaser. Also, the gifting bans are addressed. Notes below!
KingsIsle Live (April 27th, 2023)
TL;DR:
[NA] Somewhat confirmed for the Summer 2023 Test Realm: Name changing.
[NA] Extra Credits content creator program announced.
[NA] Pirate101 gets a teaser for Sinbad Part Two!!
[NA] Gifting bans are addressed today.
[NA] Hint at the possibility of Wizard101 Figures on their 15th Birthday.
NEW PEOPLE [KIEmployees]
• Sean is introduced as the new "Program Manager" at KingsIsle. He helps launch new initiatives within the company and lends a hand when necessary. He's worked on things like the Summer Internship Program & Extra Credits!
• Andrew is introduced as the Senior Game Designer, working on Pirate101. He started with KI working on the mobile games and went on to work on Trove. He rejoined KingsIsle after gamigo's acquisition.
State of the Games
[Wizard101]:
[NA] Elephant In The Room - Gifting Bans:
They are actively taking steps to 'develop security and prevention systems' to combat against people being gifted using fraudulent crowns. Not much info for now but it's a top priority.
You may not be aware - but for most unofficial websites + trading servers which sell gift-certificates for "in-game goods", almost all inventory comes from a stolen credit card.
When the card is recovered, the credit-card company charges the full amount + fee for every purchase on the account. They implore you to stop using these services - It's losing a lot of money for them and they can get in trouble with payment providers.
You most likely didn't know this, but they need to take a hard stance on fraudulent activity. They are working on this issue & also clearer messaging around support suspensions in the mean-time. Contact CS if you have any concerns.
*Everything else*
(NA) Update dropping tomorrow at 3am - it will contain bug fixes, interesting things - and something you may have seen on test for a little bit that they had to work a little more on.
(NA) Somewhat confirmed for the Summer 2023 Test Realm: Name changing!
(EU) Finishing translation touches & testing for the next update, dropping in spring! (Well, as Spring comes to an end - probably not before the next KI Live). They'll be up to Lemuria, including the Summer 2021 Update. [Adventure Parties, Wishlist, etc.]
(EU) Working on new ways to accept payment - that'll be coming soon. They'll also be 'investigating different platforms' for EU and the next update or two to come... More on that eventually.
[Pirate101]:
🗂 Steam release, Sinbad Part 2, FTUE, tech optimizations, and more coming! Some things won't be making this update - and will be moved to the next. They are looking at where the story goes next - more soon. Working on some tech and art hurdles to make it happen.
🗂 They dropped a teaser for the Sinbad Part 2! More teasers are planned for P101.
#News
Section 1 - Wizard101 North America
Extra Credits:
Extra Credits has been announced - a community facing content creator program for W101 & P101! People who make content can apply, and every month a challenge/topic will be issued which they can make content on - "content initiviates".
Rewards will be provided for participation in Extra Credits, and there'll also be access to discussion channels with KI Staff, allowing participants to express opinions on: 'what you want out of working with us', 'community initivates', and so on.
• As for the ongoing Snack Showdown, Hawkules would be excited at the challenge of finding twelve different flavours of ice cream. The least exciting one to make and consume would be the Rhubarbed Wire!
• RGB for hair and eyes: Tinkering with R&D on dyeing options, though there's no clear solution on how to bring it into the game. Irk says outlook is unclear, try again later.
• Conatus grew from the story of Lemuria, and the world evolved based on where writing
wanted Dasein's narrative to go. As for time and era, many of the worlds are tied
to Mythology, for example, Avalon (Arthurian >legends), and Azteca (Mesoamerica).
In that case, the choice of inspiration is obvious. However, some other aspects can influence that choice.
Krokotopia for instance is not set in Egypt, but in a Victorian colonial era in the 19th Century.
That then results in Marleybone being Victorian (as you go from one to the other).
In general, they aim for interesting and engaging points in history & mythology.
• Favourite pet in the game and why?
> Hawkules: Tumbleweed pet in P101
> Kayly: Moose Pet in W101
> Sparck: Ratatoskr pet in W101
> Joel: Scarecrow pet in W101
> Kyle: Raincloud in W101
> Falmea: Life Ghoul with 4 healing talents and Tower Shield. [ha!]
• Bonus: New pet coming up this year that's so cute - plus a pirate exclusive pet described as Joel's favorite of all time. It'll come to Wizard101 eventually.
• Monstrology fits weirdly into the development schedule. They're cross-training as many designers so that whoever has time can get more Monstrology in (including bug fixes). Monstrology will probably not catch up because mobs are constantly being added.
• As for re-visiting older dungeons for Challenge Mode: Spellements are an obvious reward, some new treasure cards, gold keys, etc. As the content is more difficult, it should be longer, so you should expect better rewards.
• They're looking for ways to allow high level players to do Challenge Mode content for fun (or keys) and are expecting players of the level appropriate to the challenge content to want to run it - so they want to make sure those rewards are appropriate too.
• As developers, they'd prefer that the PvP Meta changes as a result of players, rather than devs. As for when PvP will stop getting changes; they're looking at some current stuff & evaluating correct values for spells.
• Like the idea of a 'design your own hairstyle' contest! No idea of prizes, but they really want to do it.
• There are plans to make more Capybara pets , one with a party hat, Halloween hat & costume, Winter/Yuletide variant, and even thinking of a carnival style one.
• Hint at the possibility of Wizard101 Figures on their 15th Birthday. Wasn't confirmed.
Section 1 - Pirate101
• There will be a large campaign to bring in players for the update, such as "winback" campaigns, CTV Retargeting, New trailer, new landing page (similar to W101's Video), paid search & display ads, press contact, and even a launch livestream!
• Frogfather Plushie is coming in May.
• Free Membership was not planned for the P101 Steam Release, but Joel will look into it, and he likes the idea!
• As for the Mustang Wrangler's Pack not having companions, it was just a pack with no companions. Companions take a lot of effort. There'll be packs without, and even different pack variations - maybe one day they'll have a ship pack!
• Looking into Side Systems to port from Wizard101 into Pirate101. Both Crafting and Monstrology are interesting. Andrew thinks that crafting is very healthy for a game environment - and would love to have that. Unfortunately, it's not copy-paste.
Open me for the image summary!
Sunday, April 23rd 2023 (ii): [Leak] [LightkeepersLeak] The "Lightkeeper's Bundle" is leaked today. This is a low quality version, though - probably the best we'll have for a while, regardless.
#
April 22: Bazaar + CS Down
Saturday, April 22nd 2023 (ii): [Bugs] [PartOffline] The Bazaar and Crown Shop are down! This is announced on the main Wizard101 Account at 1801 UTC
This is resolved as of 1849 UTC, a fourty eight minute downtime.
Friday, April 21st 2023 (ii): [Plushies] [OldOnePlushie] The "Old One Plushie" is available today. It was first shown on March's KI Live. The plushie was available until May 20th, 2023.
Monday, April 17th 2023 (ii): [CrownsRewards] As part of Eerie April, the 'Clowns Are Fun' Crowns Rewards Event has arrived! This one was quite unpopular as the rewards featured were from the Even Creepier Carnival Bundle, except more than 5x the cost of it!
[Showdowns] [SnackShowdown2023] The "Snack Showdown" is announced! A competition where snacks go head-to-head in a popularity contest. Check out the line-up below!
Friday, April 14th 2023 (ii): [KI] [KISummerInternship] KI announce that they're hiring for a summer internship. This is retweeted on the @Wizard101 account. Yeah, that's the entry.
Wednesday, April 12th 2023 (ii): [LP] Files update for a very unimpressive live patch - [V_r734885.Wizard_1_510_Live]. Just a slight adjustment to the Night Mire Decks.
Tuesday, April 11th 2023: [NewPack] The Night Mire Hoard Pack is released. Previously it was only available from the April 2023 Loyalty Store. You can check out our entry here
[NewBundles] As expected, the The Night Mire Gauntlet Bundle is released alongside the pack. You can check out our entry here.
[KI] KingsIsle announce some sort of Speedrun event for crowns? You have to complete five tasks in a row and submit the fastest to win.
Friday, April 7th 2023 (ii): [60for60] Surprise! Another 60-for-60 takes place today. This one is through 4/9/2023. The last one was on February 17th 2023. 5:00pm GMT
CONTINUED: In due course, it would turn out that Speedster had been a victim in a chargeback scam, and that his account was suspended for investigation. He was unbanned four days later on April 10th.
You may note the similarity of this incident to the February 2023 Chargeback Bans.
Wednesday, April 5th 2023 (ii): [LoyaltyStoreRefresh] [LoyaltyStoreRefresh] The loyalty store is refreshed for April 2023! This includes the upcoming Night Mire Hoard Pack.You can check out our entry on it
The mount in the last slot is changed from the Wuffalump to Jeweled Wings, and for six tokens!
#
March 2023
Friday, March 31st 2023 (iii): [Community][VRWorldCompetition] The finals are here and it is indeed Toontown vs Wizard101 . Both sides sweat for votes & publicity, resulting in some hilarioustweets.
[LP] Files update to the new revision: [V_r734435.WizardDev]. They fixed the elixir timer issue, and I suppose that's it.
Thursday, March 30th 2023 (ii/KIL): It's time for March 2023's KI Live! They address the elixir / timer mount issues & the Rate My Stitch botting. They also announced two new plushies!
[Community][VRWorldCompetition] A semi-popular Twitter account puts on a VR Competition, and now that we're through to the Semi-Finals, it looks like Wizard101 vs Toontown is next!
KingsIsle Live (March 30th, 2023)
State of the Games
[Wizard101]:
(EU) Working on two updates for EU, bringing them up to both Fall 2021 and Lemuria. Likely not before the next KI Live, but "definitely dropping this spring."
(EU): Created a "content creator page" for Wizard101 Europe to showcase new Twitter accounts and fansites. It's known in the community, but it's not available on the menu yet.
(NA) Rate My Stitch update went live yesterday. Aware of concerns regarding the Rate My Stitch "rating system", and they did put safeguards in place for this, but not enough. Working on this alongside the elixir and timer mount issues.
(NA) When they're happy with the rating system, they'll kick off themed stitching events for prizes and "very cool bragging rights". Stay tuned for announcements on that soon.
(NA) With challenge mode, they are able to provide existing hard solos as optional content, allowing them to nerf the standard mode fight. In the future, they plan to use this feature to create harder fights with challenging rewards.
[Pirate101]:
• Exciting plans for the 15th Birthday, things that they've "never done before", but these beans cannot be spilled yet. However, it's something "she's [Kayly] wanted as a player for years"
• Two new plushies were announced!! These were also shown on stream. They are the 'Old One Plushie' and the 'Frogfather Plushie'. Due to the size of the Frogfather Plushie, it'll cost more, but also come with 1 Month of Membership. The Old One plushie arrives in April, whereas the Frogfather Plushie is TBD.
• Ratbeard was forced to eat Mustard Sardines on stream after the P101 Ratbeard won the Showdown.. [1900]
• As for extending classic mode, such as adding old spell sound effects... it's a lot of effort, and last they checked (years ago, and it continued to downgrade), less than 1% of players have Classic Mode on.
• One code for the upcoming "Rock Skipper" (April Fools) was given on stream today, one day before it's out!
• Thinking of a Wand to accompany the Superfan outfit. As for a mount, not too sure how a KI Live themed mount would look like. [Joel] wants a "KI Live train car"... that would be fun to give out in the future.
• Summer Raid will be different, looking to add new "puzzles" + getting new things from the Tech team to support the Raid. It will be very different from the first raid. The raid is Azteca themed. *Players should be levelling up their Monstrology, as something in there is "crazy cool looking."
• Two of the plushies we've not seen yet were confirmed: One for the 15th Anniversary, and another for the new world.
Section 2 - Pirate101
• Pirate101 has its 10th Birthday coming up in October, so they'll get a new plushie!
• Not that it's coming soon or anything but [Leah] wants the housing and events system in Pirate101 to be as similar in both games as possible, so Pirates can access Castle Tours, Castle Magic, etc, and they can also run events similar to Wizard101's event system.
• [Joel] The Wizard101 Crown Shop backend is much nicer than the Pirate101 one! It'd be great to port that over.
• Improving Ship Combat is on the list, but there's not much more information than that.
Section 3 - Stats with Decius
• Most commonly stitched item: Charmers Mystical Flute, followed by Zeus Lightning Striker.
• As for how many items get stitched: Well over 1,000,000 stitches every year!
• 725 Guilds have been created as of March 29th, 2023.
• Most total fish caught in-game by 1 Wizard: 78,420 fish caught by one person.
Section 4 - Challenge Mode Segment
• Future plans include preserving existing harder fights as they are in Challenge Mode, and making them easier in Standard Mode, so new players don't face a roadblock.
• As for why they chose those three fights for Challenge Mode - A result of consultation with the community and the team to find the "infamous" fights and challenges that didn't fit with the main quest line - and those were the three.
• They're also debating as to what existing content they want to make a Challenge Mode version of - probably somewhere in Arc 1 or Arc 2.
• Challenge and Standard Mode came around due to varying player interests - some casual players enjoy the combat experience as it is, but would be put off by a tough battle, so the idea was to split the difficulties, and allow players to opt in to what they want.
Open me for the image summary!
Nope, no image summary.
#
March 29: Spring TR Live!
Wednesday, March 29th 2023 (iiii): [TR-DOWN] [LP] [FallTest2022] The Spring 2023 update is now live! following some downtime. Not only that, but there's also an update: [V_r734386.WizardDev]. Test realm lasted 16 Days* from when it went up on March 13th. There were four patches. Very early and very short!
Technically speaking, test realm lasted 15 Days, as it was inaccessible after Tuesday.
Tuesday, March 28th 2023 (iii): [TR] Test Realm has concluded! That means that test realm has lasted 15 Days ... Just waiting for it to go live now...
#
Mar 27: 2007 Press Disc
Monday, March 27th 2023 (iii/PR): [KI] [W101PressDisc] A Wizard101 Press Disc is found in the wild, (or on eBay rather for $250) and its contents are shared on Reddit. Mainly stuff for the press to use, from around 2007.
Friday, March 24th 2023 (ii/TRT): [Teaser] Test Realm is down for the week, unfortunately the bank improvements will not make it to live yet. Test will be back on Monday. That aside, we get a teaser from Final Bastion showing upcoming changes to shield gambits!
Tuesday, March 21st 2023 (ii): [TP] [MajorTP] [SpringTest2023] One day later, we get quite a major patch to test realm! It also has notes! We've got the Pierce Jewels shown on March 17th, Healing Current gets buffed and much more. Read on for the rundown on [V_r734155.WizardDev]
Friday, March 17th 2023 (iii/TR): [TR] [SpringTest2023] Wizard101Devs tweet out some upcoming Dual School pierce jewels coming to Test Realm - temporarily hover for the sake of testing.
#
March 15: TR Patch One
Wednesday, March 15th 2023 (ii): [TP] [SpringTest2023] Test realm goes down for the first patch: [V_r733965.WizardDev]. No notes, unfortunately. However, perhaps the most major change was to Rusalka, getting rid of the unhelpful flat blades. Oh, and Azteca Raid.
Tuesday, March 14th 2023 (ii): [TR] [TRBugs] [SpringTest2023] Marco Artigiano is taken down from Test Realm because he's crashing the game!
Spring 2023 [SpringTest2023Launch] - TR Notes (3:42pm GMT).
One has to note the absence of teasers. We got the Rate My Stitch teaser on KI Live and a hint in the Newsletter, but that's it before the surprise March drop... Anyway, notes!
Noteworthy: Challenge Mode! Long awaited addition allowing you to experience select fights at a "higher difficulty"
Wednesday, March 8th 2023 (ii): [Newsletter] The March 2023 Newsletter has arrived!. Interestingly, the newsletter appears to hint at "Hard Mode", but this is later disproven.
Tuesday, March 7th 2023 (ii): [SpiralShowdown2023] Ambrose has won the Spiral Showdown vs Cyrus! This event started on Friday, January 12th. It lasted 55 Days. Here's the original entry for this event.
[NewItemRelease] The Colorful Bundles are released into the Crown Shop today! They are split between Cups, Bowls and Candles Bundles. Here's the announcement
Friday, March 3rd 2023 (ii): [LoyaltyStoreRefresh] [LoyaltyStoreRefresh2023] [AstralRerun] The Loyalty Store is refreshed for March 2023. The Shadow Elegant re-run continues - just another refresh otherwise.
Wednesday, March 1st 2023 (ii): [SOF] The "Spring 2023 Scroll Of Fortune" is released today! - Stormzilla themed! You can check out our entry on it.
# February 2023
#
Feb 24: Stream Sniping [S3]
Fri, February 24th 2023 (iii): [LP] Files update for a very unamusing patch fixing the Aeon bug (no unpolymorph) introduced last patch. The resulting [V_r732896.Wizard_1_500] is quite nothingness.
[KI] [KIStatement] [StreamSnipingStatement] Okay, so this one is quite interesting. Apparently, people were banned for Stream Sniping - see video following 'streamer accusations'. This results in some controversy that some streamers (Sauce, Liam) are falsely accusing people of stream sniping and getting them banned.
KingsIsle come out with a forum post disproving this, basically saying that they don't action based off reports only, and did not mass-ban players suspected of sniping. Post is below. (archive).
[Plushies] [RavenPlushie] The Grandmother Raven plushie is released today! 3:00pm UTC
#
Feb 23: Rate My Stitch [TR]
Thu, February 23rd 2023 (ii): [KILive] [TRTease] [SpringTR2023-Teaser1] KingsIsle Live for February 2023 is here! In this one, we got our first Spring 2023 Test Realm teaser showing the "Rate My Stitch" feature!! Image summary here.
[Controversy] Faeriequeens becomes the topic of this week's drama and attacks cough harassment cough after trying to host a trivia contest for 30,000 Crowns with a $5 Entry Fee, along with the creation of a "feet OnlyFans". In-fact, it was so much of a burden that she addressed it in a video..
Continued - Feb 26/27: Following this, several other female players in the Wizard101 community report being harassed, including this example where a sad sack of flesh sends death threats to a streamer.
There is a fantastic new twist for the upcoming gauntlet. Look out for that when TR Drops!
We also got a teaser for the new "Rate My Stitch" feature, coming in the Spring 2023 Test Realm!!
If all goes well, Lemuria should be out by Summer for Wizard101 EU.
State of the Games
[Wizard101]:
(EU) As previously mentioned, the Spring 2021 update is now on the EU Servers. More currency options were rolled out along with more payment methods.
(EU) The next update will be the Wizard City revamp finale + another lead-up quest to Lemuria. They are also looking to improve the player experience (i.e: EU Voiceover is a bit messy right now).
(EU) They've also heard feedback about syncing shop items with NA, but this is challenging as the NA servers are ahead in terms of content though they are doing what they can and exploring workarounds until it's caught up.
(NA) So many things in the works, content for Spring, Summer and Fall are all being worked on! We also got a teaser for the new "Rate My Stitch" feature, coming in the Spring 2023 Test Realm!!
[Pirate101]:
• Spring update is in the works, with rest of year plans being finalized. They've talked about Sinbad story updates, FTUE, Steam, increased marketing, and UI Changes (though some of that could be in the second update). More in march.
#News
Section 1 - Wizard101 Europe
• If everything goes right, Joel wants Lemuria to be out by Summer. By the Winter, 5th Age update should have dropped, or possibly the one even after that (Guilds/Raids)
• As for paysafecards, right now they are working on Sofort, after that, they are hoping to move onto other regional payment methods. While not the fastest process, they are working on it and have a group dedicated to this.
• Looking into expanding European advertising partners, though Joel personally wanted to make sure they had acceptance for EU Currencies before an advertising push, as it'd feel bad to make people pay the exchange rate.
Section 2 - Wizard101 North America
• Joel: Looking forward to the stitch/fashion show feature. It's been talked about for years as something that would be fun and they finally had time to do it. Really happy with it.
• There is a fantastic new twist" for the upcoming gauntlet. Look out for that when TR Drops! Kyle did mention that Rate My Stitch is the 'staple' for the update, but there are other things.
• Ratbeard: They've improved their processes, hired more people, and are taking a more deliberate and careful approach to things. For once in a long while, it feels like "it's not bananas around here".
• Artie: Would love to brainstorm new features with the community, but there would inadvertently be conflict as some things that players/devs want get moved down in priority as the evaluation of effort, payoff and the wider goals of the company (marketing, product) take place.
Section 3 - Pirate101
• As for the 'hardest thing to work on', nothing compares to the Hydra fight. The "thorny" code was attacked by multiple programmers (up to the Lead) and design to figure out what's happening with the triggers.
• Joel: Excited for the UI Changes, there are some things in there that I've wanted for a while.
Section 4 - Tech
• They are trying to make the Wizard101 and Pirate101 codebase similar, so that features can be easily ported over. There are things that Wiz has that makes development easier, and vice versa for Pirate. The more these systems work together, the better the games will be.
• Joel wants the "without a build" system in Pirate101, as it saves time/money and avoids the whole rebooting the servers thing. It's one of the tech things that made it into Wizard, and they hope to get it into Pirate as well.
What's a build, and how does without a build work?
• When they put new releases of the game, they have to do a build , this build can take a couple of hours to do, then it needs to be QA'd, approved, and servers need to be pulled down (normally on Wednesday at 2am CT), load the new build up, update the patcher, and the patcher distributes the files to players, and then the players are on the new build.
• When this "without a build" system was added, it means that certain things can be updated in-game without a full build , so if there are emergency things, they can go in and fix them without server downtime & hours/days of effort. In pirate, this will give them a quicker turnaround time.
Open me for the image summary!
#
Feb 22: Live Patch [S2]
Wednesday, February 22nd 2023 (ii):[LP] [Bugs] [MajorBugs] A live patch is here!! The resulting patch - [V_r732745.Wizard_1_500] is quite major, with a few spells gaining Chromatic utilities!
[Downtime] Servers are restarted to fix a loading issue with the zones.
V_r732745.Wizard_1_500 (February 22nd, 2023)
🚀 An interesting patch, with a bunch of spells having their tiered upgrades turned Chromatic, some Rhoshambo's (like Betrayal) turned Unchromatic and of course, we got the Spring 2023 SOF stuff!
February 2023 - Week 3 w/e 17th Feb 2023, w/c 13th Feb 2023
Friday, February 17th 2023 (ii): [KI] Quite a packed day today, from the announcement of a 60 for 60 Sale to the new Carnival Float and Bleachers!! See below.
#Grandmother Raven Plushie Giveaway
[Plushies] [RavenPlushie] A giveaway for the Grandmother Raven plushie is announced! 4:30pm GMT
60 for 60 Sale
[60for60] Another 60-for-60 sale takes place today. This one is through 2/20. The last one was on December 12th 2022. 5:05pm GMT
Carnival Float and Bleachers
[NewItemRelease] The "Carnival Float & Bleachers are released into the Crown Shop today! Float costs 5k Crowns. Here's the announcement
Thursday, February 16th 2023 (ii) [Roundtable] [BehindTheCurtainRT] A roundtable is announced with Moongarden on February 21st at 4pm CT featuring community members turned developers!
[NewItemRelease] The "Carnival Krewe Gear" is released into the Crown Shop today! The set (excl Wand) is available for 5,000 Crowns, but also sold individually, weirdly enough... Here's the announcement
Wednesday, February 15th 2023 (ii): [Plushies] [PlushieAnnc] [RavenPlushie] The "Raven Plushie" is announced for February 24th, along with a blog post given the difficult circumstances. 50% of sales will be donated to Zach Theatre.
[NewItemRelease] The "Mardi Gras" items are being slowly released, with the following being released today in the Crown Shop:
Tuesday, February 14th 2023 (ii):[Downtime] A downtime is announced for Wizard101 EU and NA. The files did not update.
Monday, February 13th 2023 (i):[CrownsRewards] The "End of Winter 2023" Crowns Rewards Event takes place today! until Feb 20th. This event offers items from the 2021 Winter SOF with the top reward being the Evil Snowman Board at 25,000 Crowns.
#
Feb 10: Most liked tweet
Friday, February 10th 2023 (ii): [KI] [Marketing] [HogwartsLegacyCapitalization] KingsIsle continue their crusade on capitalizing on the larger Hogwarts Legacy fanbase, this time with a meme. It becomes their most liked tweet.
[FreeWCKT] At the same time, they run a Free Wizard City event for the month, with the quite snarky "RavenwoodLegacy" code.
Thursday, February 9th 2023 (ii): [KI] [2023BansDrama] KingsIsle issue an official announcement on the recent bans incident. Here is the forum post. (archive). In short, someone gifted the affected people using a stolen credit card, and so their accounts were temporarily suspended while they investigated the matter.
Wednesday, February 8th-9th 2023 (iii/ME):[Controversy] [Controversy+] [2023BansDrama] Quite a large controversy today, with accounts originally getting banned for no reason, until it was revealed that someone had gifted using a stolen card, and so these accounts were banned temporarily.
~9:24pm GMT: Some accounts get banned today "for no reason", taking their misfortune to Twitter - most notably, Goomay's. As Goomay is a well known streamer in the community, this started to gain ground.
Tuesday, February 7th 2023: [KI] [HogwartsLegacyCapitalization] Hogwarts Legacy, a "competing" Wizard game is released today. As expected, there are a lot of "nostalgic jokes" of the original Wizard game.
09:00pm GMT One of these is from 100Thieves, with the following tweet:
harry potter mmo? hogwarts legacy? wake up bro it’s 2008
10:24pm GMT KI are quick to respond to both the original tweet & the replies to capitalize on the exposure to potential new players. Other interactions include this and this.
Friday, February 3rd 2023 (ii): [LoyaltyStoreRefresh] [LoyaltyStoreRefresh2023] [AstralRerun] The loyalty store is refreshed for February 2023! Interestingly, it looks like the Astral Elegant is getting rerun as the Shadow Elegant Boots last seen in July 2022 return.
#
Feb 1: Live Patch [S3-Aeon]
Wednesday, February 1st 2023 (ii): [LP] [AeonPity] [PathB] Wizard101 receives a long awaited patch, and not only does that happen, we also get the notes in advance! Some changes include the Aeon Pity System & Aeon Changes , continuation of the [spell audit], sneaky Mardi Gras items and much more!
🚀 This was quite the large patch! As expected, the aeon pity has arrived! You now require 9 Same Type Masterpiece to craft 1 Aeon. Please see the table below for information on reagent changes too!
While there is a summary above, why not have a section here, too?
Along with the changes in crafting Aeon (more desirable -> higher pixels + 9 masterpiece), the gear itself was changed. You see, one major drawback to Aeon was that you were sacrificing major Power Pip Chance.
Thursday, January 26th 2023 (ii): [KILive] The first KI Live of 2023 takes place! As expected this early into the year, there's not much. However, we did get a future content hint - "I hope some of you have a passion for fashion." Summary is below!
"Working on unrelated stuff, in the R&D + Discovery stage and exploring other initiaitves."
[Community] [SpiralShowdown2023] The spiral showdown has progressed, with the left bracket eliminations complete. It's Malistaire's vs Alhazred in the right bracket next!
KingsIsle Live (January 26th, 2023)
TL;DR:
Sinbad Part 2 expansion for Pirate101 was basically confirmed , with Hawkules heavily implying that he is voice-acting Sinbad in this expansion
They are working on some background stuff, It's in the R&D + Discovery stage. While supporting the games, they are dipping their toes into other initiatives. Only other comment was that they may be able to talk about it later this year.
A hint about something coming up 'sooner than later' is "I hope some of you have a passion for fashion."
State of the Games
Wizard101
North America
📁 Working on things for the Spring, Summer and even Fall updates! A hint about something coming up 'sooner than later' is I hope some of you have a passion for fashion."
📁 Small change in update direction, they are hoping to fit smaller bug-fix updates in once a month. In light of that, a smaller update is coming soon, with some significant gear changes!
Europe
📁 Quality of life update! Now current to April 2021 (AOE Speedup, 64 bit, King Borr/Marshfellow).
As of taping, they are missing one piece for the currency system launch! Soon.
Pirate101
📁 Hard at work on Pirate101's first update of the year, coming after Wizard101's. Looking at "early game experience" -
expecting to make changes to the early game - i.e difficulty & curve adjustments, and “maybe bringing cooler things in the game earlier.”
#News
Section 1 - Marketing
• Metrics for the Novus Marketing are good. Efforts such as a micro site & bundles, and even some user acquisition, have paid off - with results being better than some expected.
• Makeship partnership continues, and they have planned all 2023 Releases.
• Hard at work on Steam P101 + P101 Steam Trailer, so stay tuned if you liked the W101 Trailer!
• Talked about plans to bring the W101 Soundtrack to streaming platforms, but they have other plans for the W101 Soundtrack that they want to do first.
• Always securing new partnerships for user acquisition - work is always being done to get new players in the game, even if we don't see these efforts.
• Wizard101's 15th Birthday is coming up this year, a good opportunity "to do some new things that you haven't seen before!"
Section 2 - Community
• One of the initiatives (especially over the next couple of months) is to bring the EU and NA communities closer , such as including Wizard101 EU in State of the Games.
• One of the main areas is Discord, and following the Pirate101 Discord, there have been rumours of a Wizard101 NA Discord. There is no news about that, and it is not being planned currently.
• There is the Wizard101 EU Discord. They are gathering info about the EU Community (such as fansites), before they rearrange the Discord areas. It is the main area for the EU Community, so they will try to support them and fix issues, such as addressing complaints of language support in the server.
• No ETA for the next Wizard101 EU update, but they are working on it.
Section 3 - Design
• They don't design gameplay to frustrate players (surprise!), but rather to subvert the way they expect to play, and get them to think more. They want players at the endgame to be prepared for combat other than "Blade Blade AOE". There is a time and place for that gameplay, and bosses aren't it.
• Lots planned for Guilds, working on 'The Raid', and thinking about how this new Raid would contrast with the existing one. They are thinking of expanding/continuing to develop the Raids Island.
• As for training all spells: continually adding new spells to the game, at a rate that exceeds desire/ability to acquire, but also if they wanted players to train all the spells in-game, they'd just remove training points rather than flood you with them.
• No clue why some Beastmoon Pets are unable to be hatched in Kiosk (Soulclops, Fablewing, Harmonic Cyclops), but they'll look into it, they shouldn't be.
• Discussed different things to emphasise dual schooling. Not sure if dual blades are it. The Astral Blades that already exist help to "round out the wheel".
Section 4 - Everything else
• Voice chat in the 101 Games? They could either "hire one developer or a thousand voice chat moderators".
• There will be more colour-variant pets in the Crown Shop. Working towards expanding the pet options in Pirate, such as new variations, new morphs, and new pets for various events.
• Sinbad Part 2 expansion for Pirate101 was basically confirmed , with Hawkules heavily implying that he is voice-acting Sinbad in this expansion
• The thought process for the final fFboss design is as follows (Lore!):
The Manticore envisioned the first world as a utopia where everything was united and perfect - including the people. He thought that various inhabitants of the Spiral (Unicorns, Dogs, etc) must have been divided the way the worlds did, so the first-worlders must have been all the people "mushed together".
Given his madness and evil outlook, when the Manticore tried to manifest "these things" by hijacking Dasein's powers, the things turned out as hideous as Manticore expected.
In terms of design, they looked at a particular John Carpenter movie - when the first concept art terrified them, they knew they'd go in that direction!
Open me for the image summary!
#
Jan 18: W101EU Update [S3]
TL;DR: Wizard101's EU Servers are updated to the NA equivalent of April 2021.
Wednesday, January 18th 2023 (iii): [W101EU] [Bugs] One day after the producer's letter, Wizard101 EU servers get an update! This brings them up to April 2021 (see January 17th entry) and introduced the additional payment methods mentioned in the producer's letter!
Fun fact: This patch would have a chat bug, leading to a second maintenance at 8:30pm UTC to resolve it.
Tuesday, January 17th 2023 (ii): [W101EU] Wizard101 EU gets a producer's letter! The letter itself can be found here. You can also find a picture below, along with a short summary.
The next update brings the EU Servers up to April 2021 (Friendly Players, AOE Speedup, King Borr & Marshfellow)
Additional payment methods are coming with this update - such as EUR/PLN/GBP purchases.
![W101 Digital Wonder [Second Place]](/w101archives/static/images/ne/expansion-2024/january/contestwinners/w101-thirdplace-yuki.jpg)
