City War

What it is

Guilds fight for the cities. A battle is 7 to 13 players per side for 15 minutes on the contested city’s own map, around three capture points, after 30 seconds of preparation. The winner takes — or keeps — the city.

Schedule

Battles happen on Saturdays at 23:30 UTC. The cities are split into 7 groups and each Saturday the next group in the table is contested, so each city is contested once every 7 weeks — and the guild that wins it keeps it until that city’s next battle, 49 days later:

The auction

The right to fight is auctioned. The auction opens 7 days before the battle and lasts 4 days. It is sealed: nobody sees the other bids. Bids come from the guild bank and are placed by the Leader or a Vice Leader, from 5,000,000 gold; you can only raise your bid, and ties go to whoever bid first. The city’s owner doesn’t bid.

• A city with an owner: the highest bidder challenges it and the owner defends for free. With no bids, the owner keeps it.
• A city without an owner: the two highest bidders fight for it. A single bidder takes it without a fight.
• Losing bidders get 80% of their bid back.

After the auction, the defender chooses a range of 3 team sizes and the challenger picks the number from it (the defender within 24 h of the close, the challenger within 48 h). That number is the most players each side can bring.

Roster and lobby

The Leader or a Vice Leader picks the fighters in the 24 h before the battle; only rostered players can enter, each account fights in one battle, and never with two characters in the same battle. 5 minutes before the start, rostered players are taken out of hunts, training and boss fights and must confirm; anyone who hasn’t confirmed in the last 3 minutes loses the spot to a substitute. Then everyone is teleported in.

The battle

• The first 30 seconds are preparation: everyone starts at their base, a countdown runs on screen, and you can only walk inside the blue safe zone of your side. Nobody attacks, casts, heals, captures or scores, and surrender cannot be voted, until it reaches zero; then the 15 minutes start.
• Every fighter has an outline in the color of their side, as you see it: blue for your side (you included), pink for the other.
• You move with WASD or by clicking on the ground (one tile every 167 ms, the same for everyone); clicking another player does not move you. Damage and healing work as in hunts.
• Each base has a 7×7 safe zone that can’t be attacked.
• A capture point covers 5×5 tiles. The side with more players on it pushes a shared bar: 30 s with one extra player, faster with more; a tie freezes the bar. Holding a point scores 1 point every 1 s.
• Dying only costs time: you come back at your base after 15 s, then 30 s, 45 s and so on, up to 60 s. No experience, skills or items are lost, and blessings are not used.
• Surrender: a side gives up when 75% of its players present vote yes within 60 s (dead players vote; players disconnected for more than 120 s don’t count).

Who is around you

What depends on who is around you counts players in a battle:

• Monk Serene: the Monk is Serene when no ally on the same floor is on his screen or when at most 5 of the 8 tiles around him are occupied — allies and enemies both occupy a tile. Focus Serenity makes him Serene for 7 s, as in hunts.
• Adjacent creatures: wheel perks that count creatures next to you, like Battle Instinct and Positional Tactics, count the enemies next to you.

Result and mercenaries

The side with more points when time runs out wins; a tie — including 0×0 — goes to the defender, and a defender who doesn’t show up loses by walkover.

Mercenaries are players from outside both guilds who offer themselves for a battle at their own price (up to 1,000,000,000 gold). The Leader or a Vice Leader of either side can hire them until 1 minute before the end; the payment comes from the gold of whoever signed, only when the mercenary enters. They count toward the side’s player limit and can’t vote to surrender.

What a city gives

• +10% experience and loot for the owner guild’s members hunting in that city’s hunts (not boss arenas or quest rooms).
• 50% of every rent paid for houses in the city goes to the guild bank — it is part of the rent, not an extra charge.
• 1% of the gold every hunter collects in the city’s hunts goes to the guild bank, paid by the hunter when the hunt closes.
• The guild tag appears with the city’s name.