Raids

Your own raid

A solo traveller gets a fresh run. A party shares its own run, with up to five members. You only see members of your run inside. When the leader enters, party members at the gateway go in too; others can join by entering later. Leaving the party does not remove you from the run. Caves, the High Place and the valley remain shared places.

Knocked out: watching

There is no respawning inside a raid. If you fall, watch a standing teammate. Use A and D, the left and right arrow keys, the controller direction pad or the arrows beside Watching to switch between them. Your camera zoom and angle remain yours. Chat still works, but you cannot move, fight or collect things.

When everyone is down, everyone is carried out together. A lost run gives no chest and does not count as a completion. If your teammates win, you share the result under the normal participation and points rules. Leave raid lets you leave early. Returning to that run does not revive you.

What a raid is

A raid is played together: a party of up to five goes in, works through its rooms, and opens a reward chest at the end. You can go alone, but a raid is built for a party, and each room has jobs for more than one.

Every raid is a place of its own with its own part of the story. The first is The Buried Gate, east of Capernaum by the mouth of the river. The cave and the High Place stay as they are.

The ladder

Raids are climbed like a ladder. Each tier asks more of you and gives better: stronger spirits, a tighter time, better odds and uniques of its own. In the raid window each need is red until you meet it and green once you do, as in the Quest tab.

The Buried Gate

Needs Faith level 20, Total level 50, A Cord of Three Strands, The Silence in the Reeds. The old gate the flood laid bare by the river mouth. Four rooms, a captive to free and the spirit that sat in the gate.

The Buried Gate: challenge mode

Needs Faith level 40, Total level 120, A Cord of Three Strands, The Silence in the Reeds, The Buried Gate completed 10 times. For the best. Stronger spirits, a timer, better odds, and uniques found nowhere else. The fastest runs are on the hiscores.

Points: skill decides the loot

Everyone earns points for doing their part well, counted by the server. The more points the whole party earns, the better its chance of a unique, and the unique goes to one member with a chance as large as their share of the points.

Knocked out, you keep 80 in 100 of your points and stay down for the rest of the run. A clean run (nobody knocked out) and a fast run (within the tier's target time) each add a tenth to everyone's points.

The steps of the raid itself (the stones read and put right, the captive freed and carried to safety, each phase of the spirit of the gate) count in full towards a unique, and only in the raid's order. Blows blocked, Words landed, great blows dodged, the lamp and the doors count towards a unique up to 1,200 points in The Buried Gate and 1,600 points in The Buried Gate: challenge mode; beyond that they still show in your points and in your common rewards. The chest shows how many of each member's points counted.

Blows blocked with the right Word

25 each

Great blows dodged

25 each

Words landed

5 each

Inscriptions read

40 each

Steps of the puzzle put right

80 each

Wrong steps

minus 20 each

Seconds the lamp was carried lit

2 a second

The lamp passed on in time

40 each

Seconds a door was held

3 a second

The captive set free

150 each

The captive carried to safety

120 each

Phases of the spirit of the gate

150 each

The reward chest

The Buried Gate: a unique about 1 in 100 for every 2,500 points the party earns, never better than 1 in 25 a run. Each member's common rewards: bread, flax, bronze from the old gate, and 15 to 60 denarii, more for more points.

The Buried Gate: challenge mode: a unique about 1 in 100 for every 2,000 points the party earns, never better than 1 in 20 a run. Each member's common rewards: bread, flax, bronze from the old gate, and 25 to 85 denarii, more for more points.

Every won run gives the common rewards, counts on the hiscores, adds to the collection log and can give a unique. Someone with fewer than 100 points of their own gets nothing from the chest.

Uniques are cosmetics, bound to you: you can wear them and keep them in your bag or the storehouse, but never trade, sell or drop them. A unique you already own becomes bronze from the old gate instead. Bronze is bound too, and kept for crafting finer cosmetic gear later.

Open the chest in the treasury, or later from the raid window at the old gateway if you had to leave.

The uniques

Mantle of the bruised reed

A short mantle of undyed wool, its border woven with river reeds in golden thread. A bruised reed shall he not break (Isaiah 42:3). Worn in the cape slot. The Buried Gate, best about 1 in 67; The Buried Gate: challenge mode, best about 1 in 200.

Headcloth of the watchman

A headcloth of fine linen with a blue band, bound with a cord as the watchmen on the walls wore theirs. They shall never hold their peace day nor night (Isaiah 62:6). Worn in the head slot. .

Girdle of truth

A long sash dyed the deep green blue of the Jordan where it meets the lake, tied at the waist. Having your loins girt about with truth (Ephesians 6:14). Worn in the legs slot. The Buried Gate, best about 1 in 67; The Buried Gate: challenge mode, best about 1 in 200.

Lamp of the Word

A little clay lamp, its flame steady in any wind, found still burning in the dark below the gate. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path (Psalm 119:105). Worn in the shield (off hand) slot. The Buried Gate, best about 1 in 100; The Buried Gate: challenge mode, best about 1 in 100.

Staff of the Jordan

A walking staff of olive wood, worn smooth, with a band of bronze below the grip. With my staff I passed over this Jordan (Genesis 32:10). Worn in the weapon slot. The Buried Gate: challenge mode, best about 1 in 67.

Cape of praise

A long cape dyed madder red, with golden edging and two shoulder clasps. The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness (Isaiah 61:3). Worn in the cape slot. The Buried Gate: challenge mode, best about 1 in 67.

The collection log and the hiscores

The collection log shows, for each raid, every unique and the bronze in colour once you have found them (with how many), and dim until then, so you can see what is left to chase. The High Place has a page too, for its robes and trims.

The raid window has its own hiscores: how many times each player has completed each raid, and the fastest runs of the challenge mode. Only gamer names and numbers are shown.

Later raids

More raids will open as the map grows: towns along the lake, boats, and higher skills. Each will be a new place, harder than the last, with finer cosmetics.