Spirit Beasts 2.1 has been released into the wild, and with it comes a new arena system and NPC trainers!

Here's how things work:

In the belly of the Firebird, Elanthia's cool new merchant aircraft, is a hidden arena called the Talondown. There, you'll have the opportunity to train with some of Elanthia's best and brightest Spirit Beast addicts, or, y'know, get brutally murdered by them. You'll also have the opportunity to win fabulous prizes. What prizes, you ask? FABULOUS. PRIZES. There are also new types of matches to complicate your already-difficult-and-frustrating Spirit Beast experience!

Blood Matches - Try your skills against your friends or NPC trainers. In the Blood Pit, your health is tied to that of your Spirit Beast, so when your pet is vanquished... well, so are you. But there's good news, everyone! Blood Matches allow you to win redsteel marks, a valuable form of currency that allows you to purchase upgrades for your Spirit Beast, along with a few other nifty items, at the cashier. Also, the trainers are kind enough to match their beasts' levels to yours. How nice.

Training Matches - Have you been tired of trying to find someone to level beasts with? Well, I'm tired of hearing about it! Now, you can head to the Talondown and fight either a friend or NPC of the same skill and beast level for the low, low price of 3000 silvers a head. The best part? Your beast gets a bonus 100 experience for every fight you win in the Training Arena. Talk about a bargain.

Listed Fights - There can be only one! Every week, the Talondown gives a mysterious prize to the winner of its listed matches. You get six fight tokens a week just by checking in, and from there on, its on you to win or lose. Listed fights can only be played against other players. Every fight that you lose costs you two tokens. Every fight that you win gains you one extra. You'll accrue points by defeating foes, and whoever's at the top of the leaderboard by the week's end wins.

Weekly Challenges - But wait, there's more. Every week, the arena sets out seven of its deadliest trainers to fight. These guys do not level-match, and they are not nice. Defeating all seven will net you a radiant bestial soulstone and a whopping purse of redsteel marks. You have the entire week to do it, so if you keep getting your face kicked in? Take a breather, come back, and prepare to wreak havoc.

As an added bonus, any fight won in the arena, against NPC or player, has the potential to net you a valuable prize!

You want more? How about heading up to the stands to WATCH your friends get pummeled? More than that!? Well, there's also a cashier, but we've gone over that. If you want more than that, you'll have to wait for Spirit Beasts 3.0: Electric Spirit Beastaloo.

Other Patch Changes:

Armaments, beast experience potions, and common and uncommon Spirit Beast enhancements are all available for purchase or winning at the Talondown Arena!

Max Speed bonus now allows your beast to attack once every 7 seconds, up from 5. This was to compensate for the overwhelming speed of high-level fights, which were becoming a hindrance to strategizing even for experienced players. Speed ranks have been adjusted accordingly.

To positively readjust the value of Speed, extremely high levels of Speed now qualify beasts for the "Blinding Speed" buff, which begins as a passive 3% boost to attack avoidance and climbs from there.

Accuracy has now been considerably improved. Base special attack damage has been reduced slightly, but it is now boosted by Accuracy. Beasts with average levels of Accuracy should see no noticeable damage change, but those with high Accuracy will see more damage out of their special attacks. Furthermore, Accuracy now provides a chance to do more--but still reduced--damage while guarding.

Experience 'til next is now shown on Spirit Beast talismans!

Auchand

"I have passed through fire and deep water, since we parted. I have forgotten much that I thought I knew, and learned again much that I had forgotten. I can see many things far off, but many things that are close at hand I cannot see."

This message was originally posted in Game Design Discussions, Spirit Beasts. To discuss the above, follow the link below.

http://forums.play.net/forums/19/213/3271/view/56