Albion Online Introduces Gameplay Improvements with the latest Foundations Update

The latest Foundations Update in Albion Online introduces huge changes, including the addition of fortifications and siege mechanics, new crystal weapons, and combat improvements. Territories can now be fortified with walls, gates, and guards using Fortification Points generated by territories. The update emphasizes strategic resource management and territorial control with the introduction of “Manage Fortifications” guild right.

The siege system has been updated, with new Siege Banners and Hammers introduced during Prime Time battles. Territory Activity Chests replace Crystal League Battlevaults to reward active engagement in controlled regions. Prime Times have been restructured for optimal activity periods, and Guild Seasons will have a uniform naming convention for Season 23 onwards.

For the full patch notes, check below:

Albion Online Foundations Update Patch Notes

Foundations Update – Version 25.000.1 – April 15, 2024

Fortifications

Overview

• Fortifications are upgradable walls, gates and guards for Territories
• To raid or conquer a territory you’ll need to fight your way through these Fortifications
• Fortifications can be built and upgraded with a Territory’s Fortification Points
• When a Territory owner changes, or at the end of a Guild Season, all Fortifications are reset

Fortification Points

• Each Territory generates Fortification Points, which persist between changes of ownership
• Fortification Points are generated at the end of Prime Time
  • Territories with a higher Power Level generate more Fortification Points
• Fortification Points last for the duration of a Guild Season and are reset at the end

Upgrading

• Fortifications are always upgraded in pre-defined groups
• An upgrade can only be started between the end of one Prime Time and 30 minutes before the next
  • Walls and Gates:
    • Require stone blocks and Fortification Points to upgrade
    • Building upgrades are always finished at the end of the following Prime Time
  • Guards
    • Require Silver and Fortification Points to upgrade
    • Guards upgrade immediately but then cannot be upgraded again until after the following Prime Time
    • Since guards can now be upgraded with Fortification Points, they no longer scale with Tower Levels
    • Sentry Mages and Siphoning Mages cannot be upgraded
• The Amount of required resources per upgrade increases with the Quality Level of the region
  • This only affects stone blocks and silver. Fortification Points costs do not scale with Quality Level.
• Upgrading Fortifications requires the new Guild Right “Manage Fortifications”

Pre-Battle Phase and Prime Time

• 30 minutes before Prime Time, the Pre-Battle Phase begins and all gates are closed
• Any enemies inside an enclosed territory are teleported out (only applies if the Fortification walls have been upgraded at least once)
• Fortification buildings are always protected by a Force Shield, which reduces any damage against them by 100%
• The Force Shield can only be weakened by raising a Siege Banner during Prime Time

Siege Banners

• Siege Banners are now required to raid or conquer a territory
• These are new items that can be crafted at the Toolmaker
  • They have their own crafting specialization node on the Destiny Board
• A guild can use a Siege Banner during Prime Time near an enemy territory
  • A raised banner will slowly weaken the Territory Force Shield over time, allowing fortifications to take damage
  • A raised banner can be carried like a Power Crystal by guild members
    • If a dropped banner isn’t picked up within 10 minutes it will vanish
    • Enemies can reduce this time to 5 minutes by channeling the dropped banner
  • In addition, they provide a defensive buff to its carrier and an attack speed buff to any allies within its range
  • Each guild can only have one active banner in a region at any given time
• If an attack was declared during the previous Prime Time, a raised banner is upgraded to a Conquest Banner
  • During a conquest, a territory’s guards are strengthened
• Any attack declaration is automatically pacified if no banner is raised within the first 15 minutes of Prime Time

Siege Hammer

• Demolition Hammers have been renamed Siege Hammers
  • Attacks on walls and gates require a Siege Hammer
  • Defenders and their allies can use a Siege Hammer to repair walls and gates

Fortification Gates

• During Prime Time, Fortification Gates can be opened and closed manually
• This requires the guild right “Open/Close Fortification Gate”
  • However, any enemies inside the Fortification can also open the gates
• The crystal on the gate enables allies to teleport through the gate
• The gate has two health bars: the first for the crystal, the second for the gate
  • The gate can be repaired, but the crystal cannot
• Outside of Prime Time, Fortification Gates are always open to ensure territories are a playable area for everyone

Territory Activity Chest

To reward guilds that are active in the regions they control via territories, and at the same time to offer an additional incentive to raid those territories, we have introduced Territory Activity Chests. These replace the old Crystal League Battlevaults.

• Whenever any player in the region receives loot from killing mobs, opening loot chests, gathering, or fishing, there is a small chance that this will add additional loot to a cache
  • The amount of loot generated through these activities depends on the Territory Tower’s Power level; activity in non-instanced neighboring regions will also add loot to the cache, at 25% of this rate
  • Roads of Avalon are excluded from this
• This cache is inaccessible to players
• After 24 hours, at the start of Prime Time, the cache’s most valuable loot will be moved into the Territory Activity Chest
• During Prime Time, the territory owners cannot open the chest, but other guilds can raid the Territory, break the chest’s protection and steal these items
  • Raiding will destroy 30% of these items randomly, however
• After Prime Time, any guild member can check the chest’s content but only members with the guild right “Access Territory Activity Chest” are allowed to take loot from this chest and transport it to safety

The current accumulated estimated value as well as the average estimated value can be viewed in Territory Information on the World Map. This way players can decide whether or not it is worth raiding or protecting these chests.

Territory Changes

• All territories in the Outlands have received one of five new layouts
• The number of farming plots have been halved but their output has been doubled
• You can no longer sign-up for Crystal League matches at the tower

Season Changes

Season Names
Beginning with Season 23, Guild Seasons across all three servers will use the same naming convention (ie., the next Guild Season will be named Season 23 on all servers).

Prime Times
Prime Times have been reworked to focus on periods of high activity. Albion Americas (formerly Albion West) has been changed to more closely resemble Albion Asia (formerly Albion East), with constant action happening from the beginning of the Prime Time window to the end.

Albion Americas Prime Times

• 15:00 → 18:00
• 18:00 → 20:00
• 21:00 → 22:00
• 00:00 (Unchanged)
• 03:00 → 02:00
• 05:00 → 04:00
• 12:00 → Removed, merged with the new 04:00 timer

Albion Asia Prime Times

• 02:00 → Removed, merged with the new 06:00 timer
• 05:00 → 06:00
• 08:00 (Unchanged)
• 12:00 (Unchanged)
• 14:00 (Unchanged)
• 16:00 (Unchanged)
• 18:00 (Unchanged)

These Prime Time windows have Castles and Castle Outpost chests unlocking one hour before they begin, one hour after they end, and on every hour between Prime Times. As this results in a two-hour gap between Castle timers, the lock duration of Castle chests has been reduced to 60 minutes (down from 120 minutes)

• The exact Unlock Times are as follows:
  • Albion Americas:
    • 17:00
    • 19:00
    • 21:00
    • 23:00
    • 01:00
    • 03:00
    • 05:00
  • Albion Europe:
    • 11:00
    • 13:00
    • 15:00
    • 17:00
    • 19:00
    • 21:00
    • 23:00
  • Albion Asia:
    • 05:00
    • 07:00
    • 09:00
    • 13:00
    • 15:00
    • 17:00
    • 19:00
  • Bolded times are Legendary spawns on both Saturday and Sunday. As we previously had three timers, the remaining Legendary Castles and Castle Outposts will spawn randomly throughout the week during normal spawn periods.

World Bosses
On Albion Asia, World Bosses now spawn every even-numbered hour (UTC), to avoid colliding with maintenance.

Season Winner Statues
Season Winner Statues will be uniform across all servers from Season 23 onwards, and will no longer be designed by the guilds themselves.

Spectator Mode

A new Spectator Mode gives third-party players the ability to observe Arena battles, allowing content creators to stream battles and tournaments which they organize themselves.
Custom Matches now have the option to invite one spectator, who is completely invisible to the participants and has no influence on gameplay.

• When setting up a Custom Match, the UI includes the option to add a spectator
• They can then accept or decline the invitation, similar to an active participant in a battle
• If the organizer is also the spectator, they will still have to invite themselves in this way

During the match:

• Spectators can choose on which players or parts of the map the camera will focus
• Should a creator wish to stop broadcasting a match before the end, they have the option to leave the match at any time

New Crystal Weapons

This update introduces the next three Crystal Weapons, with their own unique spells (note: weapon and spell names are subject to change before the update is released).

• Arctic Staff (Frost Staff): Arctic Volley continuously fires icicles in the targeted direction while you can move freely.
• Phantom Twinblade (Quarterstaff): Phantom Blade lets you summon multiple phantoms which travel while slashing through your enemies, ending with a powerful knock up from the last phantom.
• Crystal Reaper (Axe): Relentless Assault marks an area around you. While you are in this area you gain access to a short, powerful, low-cooldown dash that decreases the cooldown of all other weapon spells if it hits successfully.

The artifacts for crafting these weapons will become available at the end of Season 23.

Tracking Changes

Tracking in Black Zones can be a dangerous endeavor, especially for solo adventurers. A common tactic we’ve observed is a group besieging a target’s position to get to the hunter. There was previously no way to deal with this situation besides aborting the hunt and starting a new one. As a result, targets that have been engaged at least once will now escape after some time even when not in combat and move to a new position only known to the hunter.

Earthmother

• HP scaling has been adjusted, now increases by the following amounts:
  • 6 players: 10%
  • 7 players: 18%
  • 8+ players: 24%
• Thunderslam damage reduced by 20% for each phase:
  • Phase 1
    • Center: 400 → 320
    • Medium Radius: 200 → 160
    • Outer Radius: 100 → 80
  • Phase 2
    • Center: 800 → 640
    • Medium Radius: 400 → 320
    • Outer Radius: 200 → 160
  • Phase 3
    • Center: 1200 → 960
    • Medium Radius: 800 → 640
    • Outer Radius: 400 → 320

• Fixed issue where Thunderslam could hit multiple times
• Frenzy damage reduced by 20%:
  • 500 → 400

Additional Changes and Improvements

Albion Asia

• Low tier resource spawn rates, which had been increased for the launch of Albion Asia, have been reduced to match Albion Americas

Crafting Changes

• The batch size of Rare Potions has been doubled from 5 to 10, while the Rare Ingredient requirement remains the same. This doubles the amount of Potions that can be crafted per Rare Ingredient.
• Resources required to craft Gathering Armor increased from 8 to 16, in line with other Armors.
• Learning Points required for Bag and Satchel of Insight crafting reduced by 50%, bringing them in line with other tools
• Specialization Bonus to Focus Cost Efficiency when crafting Tracking Toolkits increased, to bring it in line with other tools

Spell Icons

• New spell icons have been added for Harpoon (Spears) and Rooting Smash (Pikes)
• Dagger spell icons have had their coloring and contrast adjusted to improve readability

Additional Changes

• Buildings and Furniture now display their tier when attacking or repairing them
• Veteran Mad Fuzzy’s (Heretic Mob) Big Bang damage can no longer be reflected
• Enchanted Randomized Dungeons no longer appear in Tier 3 zones, as they are somewhat too difficult to trouble players with at that stage

Combat Balance Changes

Hammers

• Removed the ability Bash Knee (all Hammers)
• Added the new ability: Powerful Swing(all Hammers)
  • Dash 2m into the targeted direction, knocking all mobs 3m in that direction
  • Swing your Hammer, dealing 94 physical damage to all enemies hit
  • If the enemy hit is affected by any crowd control effect, deal an additional 48 physical damage
• Removed the ability Heavy Smash (all Hammers)
• Added the new ability: Seismic Tremor (all Hammers)
  • Smash your hammer repeatedly into the ground while channeling for 2s
    • Hit Time: 0.4s | 0.8s | 2s
    • Damage: 70 | 70 | 140
    • Radius: 3m | 3m | 5m

Axes

• Morgana Raven (Carrioncaller)
  • Cooldown: 18s → 15s
  • Healing Debuff: 30% → 40%
  • Duration: 5s → 4s
  • Bleed Ticks: 5 → 3
  • Damage per tick: 18.12 → 30.2 (Total bleed damage stays the same)

Frost Staffs

• Frozen H*** (Icicle Staff)
  • Standtime: 0.4s → 0.3s

Maces

• Defensive Slam (all Maces)
  • Max allies affected: 5 → 10
• Guard Rune (all Maces)
  • Resistance Factor: 0.25 → 0.225

Nature Staffs

• Rejuvenating Flower (all Nature Staffs)
  • Cooldown: 3s → 2.5s

Spears

• Harpoon (all Spears)
  • Projectile Speed: 19.4 m/s → 23.3 m/s

Helmets

• Firebreath (Mage Cowl)
  • Cooldown: 30s → 20s
  • Damage per Tick: 44 → 33
• Growing Rage (Royal Hood)
  • Damage Increase per stack: 4% → 5%
• Avalonian Beam (Cowl of Purity)
  • Instant Damage: 160 → 80
  • Added DoT Effect (stacks up to 1 time)
  • Ticks: 2 (starting 1s after impact)
  • Damage: 40 per Tick

Armors

• Requite (Armor of Valor)
  • Channel duration: 2s → 3s

Shoes

• Ethereal Form (Feyscale Sandals)
  • Transformation Delay: 1.5s → 2s
  • Base Move Speed: 20% → 40%
  • Stack Move Speed: 20% → 16%
• After Image (Mistwalker Shoes)
  • Cooldown: 20s → 15s

Mounts

• Crystal Beam (Roving Bastion)
  • Cooldown: 6s → 7s
  • Max targets: 25 → 15
  • Damage: 24 → 0 (removed)

Diminishing Returns

• Max Stun Diminishing Return Time: 10s → 5s
• Max Root Diminishing Return Time: 10s → 5s
• Max Silence Diminishing Return Time: 10s → 5s
• Max Transformation Diminishing Return Time: 10s → 5s

Fixes

• Various fixes and improvements made to Arabic and Turkish localization
• Spell fixes:
  • Tectonic Shift (Earthrune Staff): Tectonic Slam’s knock-up now behaves as a Forced Movement
  • Shadow Edge (Daggers): Fixed issue where immunity would persist after reaching target
  • Fixed issue where Air Compressor (Maces) could ignore forced movement immunity
  • Fixed issue where Brambleseed (Nature Staffs) could ignore forced movement effects
  • Fixed inaccurate range indicators for Lunging Strike (Spears), Frostbite (Frost Staffs)
  • Fixed issue where Breakthrough (Daybreakers) could hit an enemy but cause no damage if purged
  • Fixed issue where Purifying Smoke (Helmets of Valor) would not cleanse the Fort Sterling Champion’s Hammerfall debuff
  • Fixed issue where Howl (Mercenary Hoods) could deal damage multiple times against opponents with high ping
  • Fixed issue where Adrenaline Boost would not be completely removed by a movement buff purge, and could be reapplied with an auto-attack
  • Fixed issue where Anguished Soul would not cast in the intended direction if rooted at the moment of casting
  • Fixed issue where reconnecting during gameplay would place spells on cooldown
• UI fixes:
  • Fixed issue where error message would display after a friend invitation was accepted
  • Fixed issue where Arena Match Stats UI would be partially obscured after death
  • Fixed issue where Item Details UI could display slightly different values to tooltips
  • Fixed issue where changing pages quickly in the Guild Finder UI could cause text to overlap
• Fixed issue where Awakened Items shared in chat displayed an error when clicked
• Fixed issue where the Starter Town tutorial expedition would not register as completed when finished
• Additional graphical, UI, terrain, animation, audio, and localization fixes