As mentioned previously, Kakao Games launched a “boosted” fresh start server (NA and EU) for ArcheAge Unchained back on September 15th. There is no fresh start for legacy free-to-play ArcheAge since the first one Kakao Games launched for it when they took over the publishing, did not have much players participating; additionally, this was a move to boost revenues from subscriptions since that is the only way you can login to Unchained. Also by moving to a limited-time (3 month) seasonal setup with a rapid cadence, Kakao Games Europe can minimize the normal “dead time” that happens where players quit (and don’t renew their subs), and don’t return until the next fresh start is launched. By closing the prior seasonal server and launching the next one in rapid succession, interested players need to continue subbing.
As for myself with having nothing else to really play besides jumping in and out of Genshin Impact, I decided to give the boosted fresh start a try. This is my first time playing any fresh start server (never did them with Trion or Gamigo), and also the first time since 2017 (on legacy ArcheAge when Trion was still the publisher) that I am playing on East (Haranya).
When Unchained launched (and I finally made the decision to purchase and play it), I decided to roll on West for a change of scenery; the nearly 3 years since it launched has been played on all West faction characters as there was little motivation to level an alt on East. This boosted and time limited fresh start represented the perfect opportunity to roll a Haranya character (and also becoming re-acclimated to that part of the game world again).
The starting zone in Arcum Iris was packed the first day and Austera (once I got there), was also a body blocking nightmare inside the faction base. Basically, it looked like a lot of the usual regulars returned (along with their alt accounts) which likely will give Kakao Games Europe a short term boost on their metrics (subs, credit sales, concurrency, etc). That’s basically the bottomline these companies care about. I do get the draw of experiencing this low level game play again before it turns into the post-50 gear score grind; it’s just not something I particularly care about doing over and over again like some of the player base do. It remains to be seen if the cadence of these seasonal servers, will cause even the most hardcore enjoyer of fresh starts, to begin to feel burnt out (since we’re talking about a constant refresh every 3.5 months if the next one starts a few weeks after the previous closes).
As expected, leveling was much quicker due to the always active double XP (and last weekend, it was quad boosted). Other players no-lifing the game for the first day, were already hitting ancestral levels in the 20’s after the first 24 hours (many were already A36 within the first 48 hours and hitting 6K+ GS). Myself, I just took the casual route, and originally only leveled on my main account (before the quad boost weekend). Two weeks in, most players are settled into the gearing. With land also opening up last weekend (on the 24th), I’m playing via that angle (where my leveling will go slower) versus gearing. The main thing I need to “grind” for is 50K honor in order to purchase my transfer ticket (am half way there on my main account character). So I need BSB’s to exchange for honor from the community center family quest as well as vocational task jar from an upgraded house.
October 1 UPDATE: I effectively have my 50K honor (server transfer ticket) locked up for both accounts thanks to triple bonus weekend (including XP, honor, and vocation).
I originally was planning to only play on my main account, but when Kakao Games announced they would be providing a free mushroom house + 150 tax certificates as well as this quad XP weekend, I jumped on my other account to begin leveling an alt (so that I could setup a family to do the daily community center quest). I was already hitting level 50 by the time I hit Halcyona (where you could then claim and use the free level 50 box that gives you starter Hiram gear and a bunch of other bonus freebies). While there isn’t much PvE content for the remainder of the MSQ (prior to the Auroria leg), it does make the short Hellswamp one really quick.
This faster pacing reminded me of how it was originally though (when I first leveled in ArcheAge back in the 1.x/2.x days where you had to also do a lot of the side quests just to level up to hit 30). Even the entire MSQ for Harani was streamlined from what I remembered (you had to go to more places and NPC’s before), but the boosted quad XP just made you hit multiple levels early on where it made the 1-55 journey feel like this out of place speed bump.
While certain parts like leveling and gear progression are heavily boosted (to account for the 3 month limit), other parts of the game have not been adjusted to take that into account, and are still stock (like gaining vocation, manastorm crystals, etc). You still need a lot of base materials that still have their original timers (trees, mining nodes, etc). I actually spent a lot of time (prior to land rush) in between leveling, farming open world trees for logs and stone pile nodes for raw stones and ore, but after several days, I had only farmed enough to create ONE 1000 stone brick, 1000 iron ingot, and 1000 lumber. I had to re-look up how much resources it took to not only build, but also to upgrade a thatched farmhouse to a miners, and decided against trying to create one (there are some folks though who built and upgraded to a miners on the first day of land being available) given the limited remaining time left.
It made more sense to just focus on upgrading the free mushroom house to a raised one for the additional seed beds, and task jar as I have the 250 mats (each) to do the upgrade (the most “costly” part is the 40 building management titles which means tossing most of my current remaining manastorm crystals at). As of the September 29th maintenance, they did put up a one time per account sale of building management titles (20 for 215 manastorm crystals whereas it normally would cost 300) which I’ll be taking advantage of.
I setup my properties in Rokala mainly due to the abundance of land (as expected, my actual first choice of Villanelle was packed) as well as there being mining nodes right along the main road ways (and ones right at the back of my property). Additionally, the community center supplies family quest also calls for fabric which can be quickly farmed in the seed beds (versus lumber, iron ingots, or stone bricks; all base materials better saved for construction).
My properties are basically focused on logging (lumber for paper to burn labor to create tax certificates; though I don’t know if it will even be possible to hit 230K famed construction proficiency before this first seasonal fresh start ends). That’s a lot of trees; mostly cedar which on average yields 8 logs (you need 5 logs to create 1 lumber, and 1 lumber creates 2 paper). I’m not sure yet if it is worth spending vocation badges for maple trees (which yield double the amount, but has a longer maturity period).
Before the change over to Kakao Games Europe (and the global build), you could create bound tax certificates by simply burning labor (and that is how I leveled most of my characters after completing the main quests, where it was trivial to also hit famed construction proficiency in order to create unbound tax certificates). The global build now requires paper to create bound tax certificates on top of the increase in mats (before, it usually required 3 of a base material like logs or ores; after the change, 5 are now required).
Again, the non-open world timers (stuff on protected property) for growing and harvesting stuff remains the same as the non-boosted servers, as is the amount of materials yielded or required for processing. So this part of the game remains unaccelerated and unbalanced compared to the pace of leveling and gear progression. This type of oversight is not surprising though when both publisher and developer don’t really care about these details versus trying to make up for prior missteps that had a negative impact on subscription and credit revenues, and player retention metrics. What they know is these fresh starts bring back players (and you need an active sub for Unchained to play). It remains to be seen if the cadence of seasonal fresh starts will keep the core regulars engaged (I know that once this one is over, that is it for me since it served its purpose of leveling an East alt on both of my accounts, that I’ll transfer to EVO).
Finally, and as expected, the usual botters and RMT gold buyer/sellers also end up returning (331 accounts were banned on NA-Stormraw while EU-Arcadian saw only 60 accounts banned). The usual exploiting has not taken place (yet). Win trading is apparently already taking place in PvP arena instances like Drill Camp.
