In
Ten Ton Hammer’s exclusive
style="font-style: italic;">Champions Online
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/73612" target="_blank">launch
interview, we learned that
Cryptic Studios was already hard at work on the first major content
update for the game, cryptically referred to in a brief comment on the
official forums as Blood Moon. When asked when we might be seeing an
official announcement for the event, Bill Roper informed us that we
would begin seeing more details emerge to coincide with
Champions’ official launch on September 1st. Soon after, a
href="http://www.champions-online.com/bloodmoon" target="_blank">teaser
page went up highlighting the
return of Takofanes, the Undying Lord which could only mean one thing;
giant piles of shambling zombies wouldn’t be too far behind
him.
Takofanes, also known as the
Archlich in Champions lore, is a nasty
dude who at one point in the not too distant past caused a wave of
devastation that began with the total annihilation of an entire
southwestern town. The Archlich turned its former residents into the
beginnings of a massive army of undead which swept across the United
States leaving utter chaos in its wake. As each new victim fell, the
Archlich used their still-fresh corpses to bolster his
minion’s ranks, and at the time even the mightiest of
superheroes feared that Takofanes and his massive undead army would
soon become unstoppable. This wave of devastation swept half way across
the US when suddenly, without warning, Takofanes simply vanished.
Prior to the launch of
Champions Online, I correctly deduced that there
were indeed elements already in place foreshadowing the return of the
Archlich as described in
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/co/guides/world/lore"
target="_blank">Alpha and Omega – A Brief
Look at the Champions Universe:
While
no one knows for certain what the exact goals of the Archlich
are, many believe that he intends to destroy all living humans, turning
them into an army of undead followers. Could the recent sighting of
zombies in the Canadian wilderness near Force Station Steelhead be the
first step in a much larger, villainous plot to conquer humanity?
Taking a closer look at the
teaser page for Blood Moon, it appears that
my cybernetically enhanced telepathic powers could easily put the nutty
ramblings of Nostradamus to shame:
Beware
the Zombie
Apocalypse rising in Canada! Battle against zombies
in PVP, but no matter what, do not fall there. Should you die, you
shall return as one of the undead horde, bound to fight in
Takofanes’ name.
Whether my initial observations
were indeed a brief glimpse of things
to come or just a superhumanly lucky guess on my part we’ll
never know, but one thing is for certain: Takofanes is coming to
Champions Online later this month, and he’s bringing his
undead friends along for the ride. But not only will the fallen heroes
from the Battle of Detroit be serving as new minions of the Archlich,
even more sinister plots are currently brewing as the dirty hair
monsters otherwise known as werewolves will also be wreaking havoc on
Millennium City as the Blood Moon rises.
Leading up to the launch of
Blood Moon on October 27th, a few important
game updates will be hitting the live servers as outlined in a recent
newsletter sent out to players:
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75122" target="_blank">
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/75122/preview"
alt="" style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 200px;"
border="0">
Brains!
-
Mission
Tracking Updates!
– New ways to share missions with
groups, including setting primary missions, making more missions
shareable, and granting “Assist Bonuses” if you
help complete a mission you don’t have. -
More
Missions! –
Bounty missions, UNTIL tasks, and more
content in Millennium City and Canada to help address more of the
leveling gaps. -
Power
House 2.0 – A new
room to test out your powers against
real enemies, Power Tips from the trainers, and a duel-free zone by the
trainers to make purchasing a power much quieter.
The mission tracking updates
should be welcome news for those players
that have felt that the tools for grouping and socialization have been
somewhat lacking up until this point. In fact, the ability to share
missions in groups was one of the top issues mentioned in our most
recent
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75070" target="_blank">Supergroup
Showcase featuring the
WildCards. (Which, by the way,
is an excellent read. For those of you who enjoy hearing about massive,
cross-game guilds that shatter the notion that success is synonymous
with a high end raid focus, be sure to check it out!)
One of the biggest game
changing elements set to roll out with the
Blood Moon is of course the introduction of the first new power set
since launch. Details on the first few Celestial powers have already
begun to emerge, being described as a “support-based set
[that] allows you to both heal allies and weaken enemies.”
What impact the addition of such a heal-centric set will have on the
game remains to be seen, but in the meantime new powers are being
href="http://www.champions-online.com/node/594383"
target="_blank">revealed
as a part of the build up to Blood Moon over at the official
Champions site.
According to the recent
newsletter, the Celestial set will in fact be
released a few weeks after the start of Blood Moon, but players will
have the opportunity to unlock it early:
Help
save the 13 souls
of the
Undead Heroes to unlock the Celestial power set weeks before it is
released to the public.
Big
things are
coming for Champions players later this month with an
event that seems poised to raise the bar on holiday-themed MMOG
content. In the meantime, be sure to keep your laser emitting ocular
implants aimed right here at Ten Ton Hammer, as we’ll be
taking a closer look at everything Blood Moon has to offer throughout
the month!
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Champions Online Game Page.
