Just a reminder that Season 1 quests are about to conclude after today (not to be confused with Xmas Activities).

We hope you've enjoyed our first Seasonal Quests content release! Thanks for participating and we hope to provide as much or more fun in the next one and in future seasons. :) Stay tuned for updates about the next season

We're aware of a widespread issue causing players to be unable to quick travel to Covetous Level 1, seeing "You cannot travel into that area." We are looking into the issue and hope to have it resolved quickly, thanks for your patience

Santa Claus now sells 'Crystal of Windemere' that can be used to start the Winter Invasion spawn! This requires at least 4 unique players to activate and has a 24 hour time limit once activated. This spawn will not be announced server-wide while active.

Reminder: All holiday activities will be coming to an end soon, on Jan 9th! The Winter Holiday Decoration Contest deadline is Jan 12th & Santa Claus will remain available until February 1st.

Note: Battleships & Cannon Warfare features will not be immediately available as we work on completing them

World Changes:

• Extended and connected waterways in all subregions, adding boating access across the world, with the exception of regions that are still under development
  • Removed the need for Server Boundary walls placed around Britain & Minoc sea
  • Three harbors/waterways share boundaries with neighboring regions, now designated as mixed-subregions. Barriers with two gateways have been placed at their entrances, allowing you to choose which region to sail into. Keep in mind: you can only exit a boat to land within your current region; you'll receive an error message if you attempt an invalid exit
• Added world-wrapping when driving a boat into the world boundary, ensuring a seamless world (e.g., driving west of Yew brings you east of Moonglow)
• Conducted a comprehensive audit of the entire world to address gaps in water regions
• Introduced new subregion to cover the southern water expanse called "South Sea"
  • Established a South Sea Market protected docks area
  • Boats will be automatically moved nearby if they are parked at the South Sea Market for too long
• Bucc's Den smaller Arena island has been re-combined with the larger Bucc's Den island, and the Arena has been moved to the Arena Hub in Green Acres; this smaller island will now be accessible by boat and may be used for housing or more in the near future

Boating:

• Numerous performance optimizations
• Improved AI for monsters in/around water
• Fixed lag caused by water monsters attacking players on boats
• Introduced storage and weight limits based on ship type
• Added a "Retrieve Boat" option accessible from the Shipwright
• Added a Compass HUD and boat-facing direction to the Boat Controls window
• Introduced Interactive Boat Teleporters, which can be activated by saying "cross" or double-clicking them while aboard a boat
• Characters will now be faced in the direction the boat is traveling when the boat moves, helping with visualizing the current direction on the mini-map
• Eliminated character freeze during boat movement
• Introduced new commands:
  • navigate: Initiates navigation toward a set waypoint
  • set waypoint: Allows the skipper to auto-navigate toward a specified destination when using the command "set waypoint [coordinates]"
  • move towards: Enables targeting a position for the boat to move toward

In preparation for the upcoming Battleships & Cannon Warfare:

• Crafting workbenches are now containers. To update your existing workbenches, simply re-deed and re-place them. Materials can now be crafted from inside the workbench or directly from your backpack

Fishing & SOS:

• SOS destinations now exclusively exist in Deep Water locations; prepare your boat

We've added a Lights Control menu to the Pre-lit trees that can be opened by double-clicking the tree, offering Alternating, Blinking & Solid Color choices

Hotfix: If this menu does not appear for you, please log out and back in to receive the hotfix; double-clicking should now work for house owners, co-owners & guildmates

Xmas Bonuses:

• increased chances for Fishing Lottery Token
• added some Christmas items to moat fishing loot chances
• added Christmas Lottery Box to Lottery Token Vendor

The Christmas lottery official is now stationed outside Britain Bank! Three winners will be drawn on January 15th, and prizes will remain a surprise until the drawing. Raffle tickets to enter the lottery can be found on Paragons.

As the festive season twinkles with lights and joy, the team wishes to extend our heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you. Your dedication and enthusiasm in exploring our world and engaging in epic adventures make this journey truly special.

This holiday season, we hope you’ve enjoyed the festive spirit in Shards of Britannia, collecting Christmas goodies, and reveling in the unique experiences our game offers. Your presence in our community is the greatest gift, and seeing you spend your free time with us is genuinely heartwarming.

May this holiday season fill your life with happiness, peace, and plenty of gaming fun! We’re thrilled to have you with us and look forward to sharing many more adventures in the coming year.

Happy Gaming and Happy Holidays!

• Christmas Paragons now have a chance to drop some of the items available from Santa
• The following Winter Weapons & Shield, with an icy appearance, have been added as a loot possibility to Frostfang the Ravager and Christmas Paragons:
  • Winter Sword
  • Winter Spear
  • Winter Axe & 2-Handed Axe
  • Winter Mace
  • Winter Shield

Santa Vendor:

• The Winter Weapons & Shield listed above have been added as an option to buy from Santa
• The Fishing Icepick has been added as an option to buy from Santa
• Evergreen & Snowy Tree Deeds have been added as options to buy from Santa

Carpet Stretcher enhancements:

• The carpet stretcher can now make adjustments to Cloth, to use as a floor covering
• Releasing a re-sized object will cause it to be reset to it's normal size
• The carpet stretcher now has a "Copy" button that allows users to copy size adjustments from one object to another

The Faction Town Stones in Skara Brae & Cove have had their sigil status reset & we've implemented a fix to make sure that the sigil state does not get stuck again in the future for any town stones.

In the mystical realm of Windemere, a dire threat looms on the horizon. The formidable Frostfang the Ravager and his savage horde have established their chilling camp in the unforgiving South-Eastern reaches of our land. Only the bravest souls can rise to the challenge and combat the icy terrors that threaten our world.

• Increased amount of candy received for participating in Snowball Fights (100 for winner, 25 for losers)
• Adding Windemere invasion spawn with candy drops + new winter boss that will drop some Xmas items
• Adding a new Christmas Sword that includes an AOE Snowball Flurry ability that requires Stamina and also has a cooldown
• Adding option to buy Glacial Staff & Christmas Sword on Santa Vendor
• Glacial Staff & Christmas sword can also be obtained as drops on Ice Fiends, Ice Wyrms (elf camps only) and the new Frostfang winter boss in Windemere
• Adding many items to Santa Vendor's buy list, so Santa will buy some of the more common items for a small amount of candy

Christmas activities:

• Some elves have been kidnapped from Santa's Workshop by the wintery monsters of Dagger Isle, help save the elves by seeking out the monster camps throughout Dagger Isle (Windemere)
• Collect Elf Food by killing the monsters, smashing open the gift boxes they have stolen, and by rescuing the prisoner Elves and leading them back to Santa's Workshop
• Santa will be rewarding players for helping to rescue Elves & keeping them fed, for gifts in exchange for Elf Food
• Santa can be reached by going to Windemere and using the Cellar Door teleporter that leads to Santa's Workshop
• Christmas Paragons will be spawning throughout, whom will spawn a Gift Box at their position when being killed which may contain Elf Food
• Ice Fishing provides chances at obtaining Elf Food
• Completing Snowball Fights will also grant Elf Food
• New Addition: Glacial Staff (with 3 spells included), drops rarely on Ice Fiends (spawns in Ice Dungeon) and Ice Wyrms (found occasionally at Elf Prison Camps)

Login Handout: Make sure to login starting on Christmas Eve, through Jan 1st to receive a gift, on your account, from Santa!

Garnet Dyetubs: Available for a limited time on Donation Vendors starting on December 25th until January 9th

Necromancy Vendor: Available for a limited time from now until Jan 9th the Ethereal Undead Reindeer Statue

Planned additions:

• Bazaar
• Quest(s)
• Invasion(s)
• Boss encounter requiring special task to cause damage (ex: snowball, snow cannon, glacial staff, etc)
• New assets & more activities as time permits

Stale Elf Food: Prior year's Elf Food will now show as 'Stale' but can be turned into the Cleaning Up Britannia trash can for points, which can be exchanged for fresh Elf Food at the 'Cleaning Up Britannia: Holiday' vendor

Pictures: We have started a forum thread here where we will be posting pictures of the items available as time permits

See Also:

• Updates Dec 13th

The Snowball Fight event is about to start again for the season:

• Snowball Fights are a PVP event that requires no skill and no items, all characters welcome!
• The event will run every 2 hours, avoiding overlapping with Faction Pillar events & server restarts; Players can also manually start the fight by using the Giant Snowball teleporter at Windemere bank and talking to the Snowball Fight Coordinator (requires at least 4 players from different households to be in the lobby)
• Before the event starts, portals will be created at each bank that leads to the Snowball Fight Arena waiting area
• Online characters will be sent a notification that the event is about to start with an option to Teleport To Event; this can be disabled in the Notifications Settings (fixed previous issues with pop-up appearing even when ignored)
• What's not allowed in the arena: Bandages, Potions, Pets (please bank your resources first, dismount & leave your pets in the waiting area or stables)
• After a 15 minute waiting period the game will begin and an Entrance Portal will be created for a minute at the entrance to the arena, please enter this portal immediately!
• After entering the arena there will be a 1 minute cooldown where you will remain hidden while other players load, after which you will become un-hidden and ready to start throwing!
• Snowball Fights require at least 2 players and no more than 20 players, and the game is Free For All
• The match will last 20 minutes or until someone gets 20 kills, whichever comes first
• The objective is to Pick-up & Use snowballs and Throw them at other players
• Players will automatically receive 1 Snowball when joining and you can find more on the ground
• Snowballs have a 90% chance to hit your target & they will do 50% damage
• You can Dodge snowballs by breaking line-of-sight or going out of range from the thrower
• You will also need to dodge periodic Giant Rolling Snowballs; these will flatten you if they run you over, freezing you in place for a moment, these will dissolve once they reach the water
• There's a chance to find Ice Bombs on the ground. Ice Bombs can be thrown like a grenade to freeze nearby players for a few seconds
• The Snow Cannon can be used, with a snowball in your backpack as ammo, to shoot Homing Snowballs that will follow the first player that comes within range and performs a normal Snowball Hit on them, giving credit to the shooter if they die
• Temporary heal potions can be found in the hidden Chests around the arena that may offer you a lifeline to stay in the game longer
• Tied matches are settled with a Sudden Death match where all of the tied players will be put into a final match until the last person standing becomes the winner
• All participants will receive a trophy etched with their game stats
• During the Xmas Season (dates TBD), participants will also receive Candy Canes that can be traded for Xmas Gifts
• You can use the command /snowballfight during the match to check your stats, or /leavesnowballfight to leave the match and forfeit

Original Snowball Notes: https://shardsofbritannia.com/news/snowball-fights

Snowball fight updates:

• Snowball fights now spawn Elves, that can throw snowballs, when there are less than 6 player participants
• Players can be knocked out by the NPCs that will count against their Death stats
• Players can knock out the NPCs in the snowball fight to gain kills
• The amount of elves to spawn will be determined by the amount of players less than 6 (for example: if there's 2 players then 4 elves will spawn, if there's 4 players then 2 elves will spawn, if there's 10 players then no elves will spawn)
• Snowball Fights still require at least 2 players to complete; games will be interrupted if there are not enough participants at any point during the game, with no winner declared
• Giant Rolling Snowballs will now provide a chance to create a Snowball in players' backpack when running them over
• Health Regen has been turned off for mobiles inside the Snowball Fight Arena (healing via Temporary Health Potions is the only allowed source for healing)
• Spirit Speak has been disabled inside of the Snowball Fight Arena
• Added overhead combat speech for Misses & Dodges when throwing snowballs for better clarity to nearby observers
• Improved giant rolling snowball Smash animation timing
• REMINDER: Don't forget to use the Snowball Cannons when you know your target is half-life! This will be sure to take them out and home-in on targets in the projected path (aim carefully)

Halloween Costumes have been re-enabled indefinitely by popular demand, and we've also fixed an issue where if you tried to use a costume out-of-season it would cause your character to get stuck as Polymorphed

Santa's Workshop has appeared in the North Pole, SW of Windemere, and the Elves are busy at work on the gifts for this Christmas! Stay tuned in the coming days for more news from the North Pole

Winter activities are just around the corner and soon will commence the snowball fight competition as well as holiday popup camps and Santas Workshop. More details to follow in the coming days!

• Faction coin chests have been re-enabled