The 13th Anniversary Update

Welcome to the 13th Anniversary Update! Today marks 13 years that Network Nirvana is in business, and as anyone who has played NirvanaOnline for a while now, 13 is kind of our lucky number. Read on to discover all of the sweet new features and content we're sending your way today as part of our free 13th Anniversary Update and celebration! Also, don't forget to tune into NirvanaOnline tonight for the reveal of DreamlandOnline, the next major game world coming to NirvanaOnline on June 1st!

A Word From The Director:

Hey there! Many of you know me from the in-person workshops and from seeing me online. My name's TJ Nissen and I'm the Game Director, Owner, and Creator of NirvanaOnline! With this update, we sought to correct a lot of errors in our design philosophy over the years. Previously we've focused our efforts on adding new content and activities to the game, rather than fix up old content or redesign old systems. With the 13th Anniversary Update, we wanted to take a step back and take a look at the objectives of NirvanaOnline as a whole. We wanted to re-evaluate some of our content like Pulsis Rituals and Arenas and breathe new life into them by giving players a tangible reason to go and complete those activities. With the advent of the badges system for NirvanaOnline, we've seen players seek out Badges for all kinds of content, and we've seen that system bring them to new areas of Nirvana that they never knew existed. With this in mind, we've reworked all of the activities in the game that were previously unable to utilize this system, and added Badge support for every single one! Additionally, we're proud to present the Public Events and Treasure systems, that will bring players together throughout the hour, and then send them to new corners of Nirvana to cash in their loot from doing so! That said, we've been very hard at work these last two months, secretly working on a number of top-secret projects that we're very excited to share with you. On that note, I want to say thank you to every single one of you that has supported us over the years, and we look forward to another 13 incredible years of NirvanaOnline!

Public Events:

This is the big one. Public Events have finally landed in NirvanaOnline! These rotating mega-events spawn twice per hour, first at 20 minutes after the hour, and then at 40 minutes after the hour. The Director is a new character that has appeared in NirvanaOnline to assume control of this new system. He will announce to the chat when a Public Event has started, and will also identify the Warp that players need to type in to quickly access the event. Players should be on the lookout for his announcements in-game, because these new Events are some of the most rewarding activities we currently have to offer!

Many of the initial offering of Public Events consist of revamped Pinnacle Activties from around the game that weren't receiving hardly any attention anymore. We took a look at each of these activities and reworked a number of objectives to make them more exciting, and more friendly to casual players. Additionally, we added a new Treasure system to the game (more on that later) that will help make Public Events feel like some of the most rewarding activities in the game aside from Vaults. Here's a breakdown of the Public Events you can expect to see appear in NirvanaOnline starting today:

The Menagerie: The Menagerie is back, and this ultra-rare Pinnacle Event is ready to reward our most die-hard treasure hunters. Empress Voria has invited you to her underground Menagerie beneath Arkoneux to compete in a royal ritual of avarice and fortune! This event has been reworked from the ground up. Players will no longer die if they fail to complete an objective in time, and instead players will be rewarded for the objectives they do complete. Each of the 12 objectives that are completed before the time runs out will increase the rewards granted to all players at the end of the event, provided that players manage to defeat the final boss!

The Shrieking Forge: The Shrieking Forge is back, and Emperor Ifrit has invited you to participate in a most auspicious activation of his prized forge. An ancient weapon is up for grabs, but you'll need to help stoke the kilns and repair the forge in order to obtain the highest reward from this activity. Similar to the Menagerie, this event will no longer kill all players who fail to reset a valve in time. Instead, the event will increase the power of the final reward weapon depending on how many objectives the group managed to complete in time.

S.T.A.M.P.E.D.E: This Public Event is brand-new and was designed specifically for this update! The S.T.A.M.P.E.D.E. Public Event is still in beta, and we're still making tweaks to it, but the bones are already there. Zane Wyndham has invited players to participate in his race-based research project in Arkoneux. Players are invited to join in this Event and help Zane Wyndham collect data on his new line of horse automatons. Players are released into an all-new Race course and are each presented with a reward for reaching the end of the course within the time limit! That's right, every player that reaches the end of the race will be given a reward for participating!

Trick or Treat: It's time to grab some candy! The Trick or Treat special event returns to Chernobyl Carnivale year-round! Head to each of the four corners of the Midway and summon a Trick or Treater. Lure them back to the fountain in the center to sacrifice them and steal their candy. When enough candy has been collected, all players receive a prize! We have removed the obstacle course from the end of this activity and will be repurposing it elsewhere in the future.

The Ghost Reactor: An electrical anomaly has appeared near Chernobyl Carnivale. The Vexation Priest of Vampirism has summoned his Ghost Reactor and asks that you make ritual sacrifices to him to strengthen his connection to our reality! This event has been streamlined and now displays your score without taking up space on the sidebar. Players will also find that the lag produced by this event has also been greatly reduced, thanks to streamlines in the loading process.

The Great Lady's Exhumation: The Great Lady's Ghost has been terrorizing Adytum. It's up to you to lay her ghost back to rest! Head to Adytum and complete a ritual to free her spirit and then defeat the amalgam that has possessed her. Doing so will reward all participants greatly!

The Tower of Babel: Finally, the Tower of Babel makes its return to NirvanaOnline. We've reduced the need to collect Menagerie Materials to start this event, and now the event will occur naturally like other Public Events. This activity is very much the same as it has always been, but now with no startup cost, and even better rewards! Assemble the Tower of Babel by defeating Void Constructors in time. The more sections of the tower that you purify, the better your rewards will be!

Incursion Reform:

Incursions around our 24-player activity type, essentially referred to as "Overpowered Vaults". These activities are without a doubt the hardest in the game. In fact, these activities are so hard that almost all of them have never been beaten by average players! With that in mind, we've devised a way to help you get your hands on some of that sweet, sweet Incursion loot.

Over the summer, we introduced Keys of Incursion that allow players to access Incursions around NirvanaOnline. This system was a great first stepping stone, but in today's update we've completely amped up the concept while bringing back an old mechanic. Coward's Dowries have appeared in all Incursions around the game and take place in between each phase of the level. Players now much possess a Key of Incursion to enter any Incursion in NirvanaOnline, and using a Coward's Dowry will consume that Key in exchange for a piece of Incursion loot from each Incursion's unique loot pool. Even better, the quality of the gear you obtain from each Coward's Dowry will increase with each phase of the Incursion you managed to complete. For example, the first Coward's Dowry from the Bellatraux Laboratories Incursion might theoretically give you a piece of gear with 20 enchantment levels attached to it. Making your way to the second Coward's Dowry would give you a piece of gear with 24 enchantment levels, and the quality and number of enchantment levels will continue to increase the further you delve into an Incursion.

Arenas Reform:

One of the main issues with older game worlds is that many of the activities there had seemingly no reason to complete them. With our first set of reformed activities, we aimed to remedy this by given players a tangible reason to visit Arenas throughout the game. By checking the Badges section in the Advancements tab of the pause menu, players will notice that there are new badges associated with obtaining a number of kills in each specific Arena. Upon completing the set number of kills, players will get a notification that they've completed the Arena, and will be given a number of Echelons, Credits, and a Badge for doing so!

Dungeon Reform:

Another activity type found in NirvanaOnline that was overdue for a little love are the Dungeons. These pockets of open-world exploration have been spitting out armor sets and weapons since their introduction to the game 5 years ago. Since then, we've updated them to include kiosks that would give some limited rewards for collecting all 4 pieces of gear from a regular Dungeon. In today's update, we've removed these kiosks and have introduced new Badges that will unlock automatically when a player has all pieces of Dungeon gear in their inventory. Additionally, we've increased the rewards for completing a Dungeon (they now give 25 Echelons for a regular Dungeon, and 75 Echelons for an Apex Dungeon). Lastly, we've also included tooltips in the Badges for each Dungeon that will help players understand what pieces of gear they are looking for, and where to find some of the harder-to-reach Dungeons!

Pulsis Ritual Reform:

Next up on the list are Pulsis Rituals. To be honest, these were always fun for the first one or two runs, but they often quickly lost their appeal. Now, we've brought new life to these activities by making them infinitely replayable, presenting a new challenge, adding Badges, and giving out Treasure Items. Players will notice immediately upon starting a Pulsis Ritual that they now have a 2.5-minute countdown timer on them. At the end of the countdown timer, the players that activated the Pulsis Ritual will die, so players will need to work fast. Waves of mobs will appear and will need to be dealt with in order to collect the reward from the Cursed Chest in the back of the Pulsis. If players are successful in killing all of the enemies in time and open the chest before their countdown expires, they will be rewarded with Credits, Echelons, Treasure Items, and a shiny new Badge!

Additionally, to celebrate the Pulsis Rituals getting a massive rework, we're happy to announce that we've released a new Apex Public Ritual in NirvanaOnline. Pulse Perfekted is now available for all players!

World Boss Reform:

Lastly, we have reformed the World Bosses in NirvanaOnline. I'll keep this one brief. World Bosses are now a little smarter, and many older bosses that were not working correctly are now working as intended. Additionally, the player that deals the killing blow to the World Boss will receive a badge for defeating them. The Badges for these World Bosses have also been updated with tooltips to tell players where they can expect to find each boss! Lastly, the reward item that has a 30% chance to drop upon killing each World Boss has been enhanced, and some now even give special effects!

Treasure System:

In an effort add more variety to the rewards given by various activities (like Pulsis Rituals and Public Events), we've added a completely new Treasure System to the game! Upon completion of a Pulsis Ritual, Public Event, or by opening up most Treasure Chests, players will be rewarded with a number of Treasure Items. These items can be identified by the "Treasure Item" text in the item description. In addition to this, the item description will also identify where to find the Treasure Taker that will purchase your Treasure Item from you!

Different Treasure Items sell for different amounts, and go to different Treasure Takers (aka "Merchants"). For example, golden items sell for the lowest amount and are sold to "The Merchant" near the Tarnished Treasury in the Monastery. Treasures of Ifrit's Fortune sell for a very high amount and are sold to the Disciple of Fortune near the Bastion of Opulence in Etheria. More Treasure Items will constantly be added, and new Treasure Takers will continue to appear around Nirvana to buy those Treasures from you!

Explosives:

To build upon the Treasure System from the previous section, we've also added a number of explosive-type Treasure Items to the game. These items look like common TNT, but in fact they are capable of so much more! These items can be sold for a above-average price, or can be used for more nefarious purposes! Holding an explosive in your off hand will cause the bomb to explode, damaging all nearby allies, enemies, and even innocent bystanders. Players will want to announce when they use an explosive to kill a boss, so they can allow their friends some time to make room for them before the BOOM! Explosives in today's update come in three varieties. Black Powder Charges deal a small amount of damage and sell for a modest amount, and are very common. Large Black Powder Charges deal a large amount of damage and sell for a larger amount, but they are uncommon. Black Powder Mega-Charges deal a ridiculous amount of damage and sell for a very high amount, but are quite rare.

Sidewinder Springs Renovation:

Sidewinder Springs is one of the oldest game worlds in NirvanaOnline, being the third game world we ever produced. It's also still one of the most popular among newer players and more casual players, and it's also been long-overdue for a tuneup. In today's update, Sidewinder Springs is back and better than ever before! All of the content in Sidewinder Springs has been updated to our new standard of coding, and giant beautiful canyon walls and mesas have been added around each zone to give the world more of a wild west feel. Dead trees and various world assets have been added in to bring the world to life and make it feel more diverse. All of the older content in Sidewinder Springs has been delivered exactly as it was originally created, and certain levels around the game world have been marked for their own targeted renovations later this year. Badges have been added to all of the content here, the Pet Shop has been given some new security, and various levels around Sidewinder have been given some new anti-cheat capabilities. Additionally, you may notice a few new NPCs around the game world. The most notable of these is The Renegade in the town of Tombstone. He will be your contact for selling your explosive to, if you'd prefer to use them for profit. I'd also like you to know that we're working on some new Races and a new Free Fall coming to Sidewinder Springs in the future.

Lastly, we've begun laying the groundwork for a magnificent new addition to NirvanaOnline as a whole that will take place in Sidewinder Springs later this year. Look out for this bombastic new piece of content that's sure to shake up the meta of NirvanaOnline...

New Badges:

To help supplement the above improvements to the game, we've added over 150 new Badges to the game to find and collect. These are across a variety of game worlds and specifically focus on Arenas, Dungeons, Pulsis Rituals, World Bosses, and the whole of activities in Sidewinder Springs. Get out there and collect those Badges!

Quantum Recombobulation 2.0:

In an effort to make the game and its systems run even more smoothly, we've updated the Quantum Recombobulation system we released a few years ago. This system was designed to make refilling chests around the game more seemless and allow them to refill themselves every 20 minutes while using a fraction of the processing power of the previous system. This also came with its own cost and its own downsides. For most game worlds, a chest can only fill itself if a player is located at the spawn hub for a game world, and another player is located near the chest that's trying to be filled. In today's update, we've rewritten the system to allow chests to refill anytime, no matter whether another player is located at the world spawn hub, meaning that players should encounter more random treasure chests and obtain more random treasure items!

Operation: 235 Rework:

This is one of our personal favorites. Operation: 235 has been fully updated! Players will notice that several features of the Operation: 235 Wonder Heist have been improved, making the experience more seamless and more streamlined. Most importantly, this introduces new Nuke Zones to the game! Now, whenever a player chooses to nuke a game world around Nirvana, that game world be drenched in nuclear radiation for the player that launched the nuke. Other players will not need to worry, as their game experience will not be affected. However, for the player that launched the nuke, they will notice a warning message now appears whenever they enter the Nuke Zone, telling them that they will receive Radiation Poisoning while in this world. This will deal damage to the player, and drain their hunger bar a little quicker than usual while they are adventuring out this world. In exchange for this increased difficulty, players can now enjoy 50% increased rewards from any Strike, Raid, and Vault in the Nuke Zone until the weekly reset, when the Nuke Zone will automatically dissipate! Additionally, we've also reworked the Nuclear Bunkers that become accessible after launching a nuke. These have been reworked with more consistent loot, a more streamlined process of entering the Bunker, and we've even given the Vegnatrex Doses found inside Nuclear Bunkers a buff!

NewHamenosOnline:

Here we go. I know a lot of this post has been dedication to discussing things that have been renovated and reworked, and this is in a way more of the same. New Hamenos soft-launched into the world NirvanaOnline a few years ago and was met with a mixed reception. Last year we made the decision to remove New Hamenos from NirvanaOnline and it has not been seen in-game since. During the time it's been away, we've been working on this game world in the background, wanting to bring a grand, delightful surprise to any player who is able to obtain VIP status and access it. NewHamenosOnline make its official debut into NirvanaOnline today, bringing with it 4 new dungeons, 2 new Strikes, an Arena, various World Bosses hidden throughout, the Ace of Spades Vault, and a whole new world to explore! Players will have a lot to find and explore in New Hamenos, with even more new content already well underway and coming later in the year.

Additionally, for those of our players that would like to experience even more new content in New Hamenos, we've got the Dynasty Electric Game Pack available for 1200 Vegnacite. This new Game Pack is available immediately today, and includes 1 new Apex Strike (with 3 strikes inside), 1 new Pulsis Ritual, and 1 new Apex Dungeon with 3 new gear sets! As an added bonus, all of our NirvanaNet subscribers will be able to play the Dynasty Electric Game Pack for free through April 24th!

Blackjack's Gambles:

Lastly, we've got a whole new game system that's arriving today called Blackjack's Gambles. No, these don't allow you to actually "gamble" your money in NirvanaOnline. Blackjack is a new NPC that can be found in the Atlas Casino at the heart of New Hamenos. Players can report to Blackjack and obtain his "Gamble Contracts" after they've reached VIP and unlocked New Hamenos. These Gamble Contracts will set players back by 50 Credits each, and a Gamble Contract resets each day at the Daily Reset. Each Contract will task a player with completing 3 different activities and then returning to Blackjack to collect a reward of 150 Credits, a random Treasure Item, 15 Blackjack Echelons, and more! Players will not know what challenges and activities Blackjack has in store for them until they've purchased their contract, making this the perfect example of a risk-reward activity for only our most seasoned players!

And that's all, folks! I hope you've enjoyed a look into our 13th Anniversary Update that is now live in NirvanaOnline. There's a 1001 reasons now to hop back in and take a look at some of the older content that you might not have visited in a while, and for our VIP players you have a whole new world to explore and discover! Thank you again for 13 incredible years, and I can't wait to see you in Nirvana very soon!