Aika (Part Three)

Relic War

In a relic war, players of a nation have to fight against players of other nations for control of sacred objects called "relics". These relics have the ability to bestow powerful blessings upon the citizens of the nation which possess them. But in order to harness the powers of these relics, they must be stored in special protective structures called Temples.

Each nation has four of these temples and because the maps of all the nations are exactly identical, the temples are all found in the same locations (perhaps to ensure fairness or so that players won't get lost?). Furthermore, information regarding the stats of the relics and which temple they're housed in is fully disclosed to all players, therefore your enemies will know exactly where to hit and will definitely hit hard.

Naturally, when the temple houses such important relics, one wouldn't expect them to be unguarded right? Each of these temples come with temple guards and guardian stones. In order to gain access to the relics stored within the temple, one will need to defeat all of the temple's defenses, the temple guards and guardian stones.

The temple guards' AI is scripted in such a way that it moves within a certain radius of the temple’s center, thus trying to lure them away from the temple isn't a feasible idea. Guardian stones on the other hand act like stationary turrets which emit deadly lightning bolts to attack invaders. When combined, they prove to be a formidable deterrent against anyone stupid enough to attack alone.

Basically, this whole relic war thingy is sort of similar to "Capture the flag" in FPS games. Players rush the enemy temple to steal their relics and then carry it back to their own temple. The only difference is that there is only one flag to capture in FPS games while there are more than one relic to steal in Aika.

Battlegrounds & Arena

The battlegrounds system provides an alternative way for players to participate in player-vs-player combat albeit on a smaller scale. It is a good place for you to hone your PVP skills as well as earn honor points. These honor points can be used in purchasing special consumables as well as equipments to make your character stronger during wars.

To participate in the battlegrounds, you will need to find Friedrich Kroeger at the military district in Regenshein (just be sure that your logged into the PVP channel). He will then teleport you to the Hero’s Square which is a neutral waiting area. You will then need to approach the NPC found in Hero's Square to access the battlegrounds lobby.

As far as I know, there is currently only one game setting available for the battlegrounds and that is "Team Deathmatch". In this game mode, players are divided into two teams and each team have to race against the other to see who can collect enough points to win.

There are two ways to earn points, kill members of the opposing team or collect any of the three buffs (double HP/MP, double attack or double defense) found somewhere on the map. Killing the opposing team's members will earn you one point per kill whereas collecting a buff will earn you two points.

Apart from the battlegrounds, players can also participate in the Arena. Every day during a specific time, a pop-up window will appear asking eligible players whether they would like to join in the arena battle. Do note that you must be on the PVE channel in order to enter the arena.

The requirements of entering the arena fight is simple. You will need to be at least level 11 and belong to a nation. Furthermore, arena fights are separated into four brackets.

• Bracket 1 - For Levels 11 to 30
  
• Bracket 2 - For Levels 31 to 50
  
• Bracket 3 - For Levels 51 to 70
  
• Bracket 4 - For Levels 71+
  

After agreeing to participate, you will be immediately teleported into the arena. Inside the arena, you will be randomly assigned to either Team A or Team B. You will then be given approximately two minutes to form up parties with fellow members of your team. This forming up of a party isn't mandatory though because you are all already assigned to the team whether you like it or not. The purpose of forming a party is merely so that you can track each other and also for buffs and heals.

The objective of this arena fight is simple - To completely wipe out the other team before time runs out. If you get killed, you will be instantly teleported back to your saved resurrection location. In other words, you've already lost the fight and whatever chances of getting any prize or money. If unfortunately time runs out, the team with more survivors wins.

Getting a kill in the arena fight will earn you some honor points, a medal of honor, experience points and also a chance of looting pellurite (hira) ore, rubecine (kaize) ore and/or medal of heroism. Like honor points, the medals can be used to acquire special equipments. Alternatively, players can also exchange the medals into honor points. The ores that are looted is used in reinforcing equipments, but they will have to be refined first.

On top of all these, the winning team is also rewarded with a huge sum of money. This sum of money is divided equally between the survivors of the winning team. (Yes, you heard me alright. You get NOTHING if you die.)

Altar War

In every nation of Aika, there stands a mysterious stone altar in the map of Verband, right outside of Regenshein. And regardless of when you visit this altar, there will always be a group of guards protecting this stone structure. For what purpose does this structure serve to warrant such a level of security?

This mysterious altar is actually sort of like the core of the nation. The well-being of this altar will determine whether the nation is blessed by the Goddess of Aika. If the nation fails to protect this altar, the entire nation will then have to suffer the wrath of Aika.

Naturally, with such an important structure being built to keep the Goddess of Aika happy, it is bound to be filled with loads of treasure and money (~10% of the nation's treasury) donated as offerings. Hence fueling the purpose of this altar war.

For two hours every day, three guardian stones will appear in Verband at the designated locations shown on the map. The exact timing in which they would appear may differ depending on the publisher of the game your playing in. For example, AikaSEA spawns these guardian stones from 2100hrs to 2300hrs (GMT+8).

The purpose of the altar raiders would be to destroy these guardian stones once they appear. (Do note that these guardian stones regenerate themselves one hour after they are destroyed.) When the raiders successfully destroy these guardian stones, a final guardian stone will appear in front of the altar. The raiders will have to destroy this final guardian stone before the previously destroyed guardian stones regenerate. Upon destroying this final stone, the altar will be defenseless and open for plundering by anyone.

• Individual
  If the altar is looted by an individual, that player will receive 20% of the gold stored in the altar and 5% of the total EXP required to level up.
  
• Party
  If the altar is looted by someone in a party, the 20% of gold stored in the altar and 5% of the total EXP required to level up (probably calculated based on the person who loots the altar) will be divided amongst the party members.
  
• Nation
  Depending on the citizenship of the player who looted the altar, his or her nation will receive the remaining gold as well as all the items stored in the altar. These items are materials that are useful only in upgrading relics.
  

For the nation that had its altar looted, for one hour, all of the monsters found upon its lands will have a 50% increase in damage as well as a 30% decrease in drop rates.

After the altar is looted, there will be a two hour protection period enforced so that the altar and its defenses can be rebuilt. After the protection period, 10% of the nation's treasury will once again be donated to the altar as offerings. (For your information, the nation's treasury comprises of gold that is charged as tax when players interact with the nation's NPC shops.)

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Next: Aika (Part Four)

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