MEAD: RIFT Carnival of the Ascended Week 1
By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist
It’s been over a year since RIFT went live to the world and it is still expanding. Having announced recently that they’ll be expanding into Asia after opening up for business in Russia not that long ago, it’s clear to see that they aren’t slowing down anytime soon. And this is reflected in the game as well. Telara is an ever changing world. This is in part due to the wonderful events that are put on every few months. With such wonderful events everyone has been expecting the one year birthday party to really top them all. And while it may still be too early to tell if it has succeeded in that, I can happily say so far it is awesome. What am I talking about? The Carnival of the Ascended of course.
The people of Telara are grateful for the presence of the Ascended. Without them the world surely would fall to the planes and none would be safe. In honor of a year since the first mass arrival of Ascended the [people] of Telara are putting on a Carnival for all to enjoy. And there is something for everyone, games, fair food, live re-enactments of history. And that’s all just in the first week!
Games You Say!?
Games I say. Just like a carnival in the real world (Yeah, I dunno what that is either) there are tents. And in those lovely tents are people yelling for you to come play their game. There are three games to play set up in three different places. First they are set up in the main cities Meridian and Sanctum. These are the most popular spots and as such seem to suffer a bit of lag during the peak playing times. The third place is in Shimmersand and the good folks in charge of the carnival are giving people free rides there from the capitals. The first game I tried was the traditional toss the ring on the thing game. In this case the things are Seacaps, and they never stop moving. I’m willing to admit I stood there missing far more than anyone else. The second game is a good old game of pop the balloon. Thankfully you don’t need to have amazing aim, or worry about the wind with this one! For this all you have to do is mount up (you don’t HAVE to be mounted but everyone seems to for some reason) and jump on balloons. It is by far the most popular game. But it isn’t my favorite! My favorite is the little wooden horse race. Jump up and down on the pressure detection pad to make your horse go faster. There is also a Fortune Teller though she doesn’t give any rewards just amusement. There are a few other games scattered around the carnival that you can’t play but you can watch NPCs play.
Quests
A staple of events in Rift are the quests. The quests this week cover quite a range of activities. Some are long and involved, and some are as simple as bouncing on balloons. The first and easiest to complete is to play 3 carnival games. The first thing I noticed when logging into Rift after the event had started was a bunch of really big numbers in the world event tracking area. After I talked to the contacts I discovered what was going on. We need to help gather supplies and make our own parts for the balloons for an upcoming parade! And I know for some people it has turned into somewhat of a race (I’m looking at you Faeblight lvl 50ers). This is the first time crafting skills have come into use in an event. In addition there is a quest to replay scenes from Telara’s history. Notably missing are the traditional Rift and Invasion quests. Those may come in the following weeks though.
Rewards
With every event has come a new form of currency. This time there are three, Glass Beads, Carnival Tickets and Pyrite Doubloons. The beads come from piñatas, mobs and completing quests. With them you can buy the adorable Wind-Up Pony or Valmera cub in addition to fireworks and costume masks. Tickets come from completing carnival games and have the biggest variety in the types of things they can buy. You can get anything from funnel cake and Turkducken to dragon balloons very similar to the piñatas scattered around the world. The townspeople really went all out on the carnival food with the likes of deep fried butter and watermelon slush. The last, and most rare type of currency are the doubloons. You can only get them from specific quests that give them out, and even then you only get that quest and reward combination once. It takes five doubloons to buy a mount, of which there are two. The first is the Tindrel, a robotic version of the very popular spider mount, Spindrel. The second is an amazing looking horse who may just be made of baby stars. And with the name Nebula it’s perfect.
Do you have a bunch of unused currency sitting around from events gone by? I do. And in all of them it’s a case of almost having enough to get that awesome thing I want. Well now you can buy that currency with beads! Did you miss out on an event and want the rewards? Now you can get them. With a straight one for one trade this is a complete steal. Unless of course you are like me and need to get EVERYTHING. If that’s the case then I see a lot of piñatas in your future. In addition you can exchange beads for tickets and tickets for beads. Sadly no exchange for doubloons.
Weekend Bonus!
During the entire month long Carnival every weekend will have bonuses. We’ve seen this several times in the past but never like this!
This weekend (that is March 2nd – March 4th) there will be a 25% bonus to the following:
Experience from kills
Planar Attunement Experience from kills
Favor from kills
Prestige from kills
Plaques of Achievement
Marks of Ascension
Planarite
Guild Experience
In addition to bonuses next week (March 8th to March 14th) there will be a free return to Telara for all! So if you uninstalled Rift make sure you get it installed and all patched up in time.
Come back every week in March to find out more about the latest phase in the Carnival of the Ascended event. It’s sure to be a crazy and exciting month. Happy Birthday Rift!
