AdventureQuest Worlds

AdventureQuest Worlds
Developer(s)	Artix Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Artix Entertainment
Engine	Adobe Flash
Release date(s)	June 2, 2008 (Alpha) August 18, 2008 (Beta) October 10, 2008 (Live)
Genre(s)	Massively multiplayer online role-playing game
Mode(s)	Multiplayer
Distribution	Web browser

AdventureQuest Worlds (often shortened to AQ Worlds or simply AQW) is a browser-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released by Artix Entertainment in October 2008. Unlike most MMORPGs, AdventureQuest Worlds is developed entirely in Adobe Flash. It currently has over 30 million registered accounts,^[1] reaching six million in May 2009^[2] and nine million two months later.^[3][4]

Setting

The setting of the game is in a similar universe as AdventureQuest, DragonFable, and MechQuest. The goal of the game is to level up and move on to higher levels to face the 13 Lords of Chaos and fight Drakath, the Champion of Chaos, and to adventure through Lore. As the story progresses, the players will face the Queen of Monsters who chose Drakath to be her Champion.

Gameplay

Upon creating an account, players are asked to choose from one of four "starting classes" to describe their game character, termed Warrior, Rogue, Mage, Healer, and are given a default weapon. Each starting class has different strengths and weaknesses. Leveling up allows their character to learn new abilities, and increases their attack power. Players have five different skills depending on their character's class; common to all is an "auto-attack" ability. Certain abilities ("passive" abilities) may be unlocked after the character reaches a certain Rank.

Players begin at Rank 1 and progress as they receive class points by defeating enemies. This may depend on the enemies' level and difficulty stars (1-5). Upon defeating enemies, players also receive experience and gold.

Players can also get other classes by gaining Reputation, or REP for short. This REP (which begins at 1 and can increase to 10) is acquired by doing quests in a certain location; examples of Reputation Classes include "Troll Spellsmith", "Darkblood Stormking", and "Chaos Berserker".

Events

AdventureQuest Worlds has special events on special occasions, usually lasting afterwards to a week. Some are unique to the day (one time only), while others are resumed to be annual events. There were also live events with guest stars like Voltaire, One-Eyed Doll, George Lowe, Paul and Storm, Jonathan Coulton, the cast of Ctrl+Alt+Del, Ayi Jihu, ArcAttack, They Might Be Giants, Andrew Huang, Mia J. Park, and Michael Sinterniklaas as the voice of Deady.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10]} There are hunting events and war events too.

Plot synopsis

Prologue

The game first begins when the player is on a mountain. The player is struck by lightning and falls down the mountain. Then, the player slays many undead forces of Sepulchure and kills a dragon named the Dread Dragon. This is the tutorial and the beginning of your adventure. After she/he saves Oaklore, they have to go to Swordhaven where the Doom Knight Overlord Sepulchure and his undead army from Shadowfall invades Swordhaven. King Alteon faces Sepulchure in a one-on-one duel to stop him. Unfortunately, Drakath interrupts the duel by killing Sepulchure by crushing his Undead Soul, causes King Alteon to go though his Chaorruption (short for Chaos Corruption) slowly, and plans to unleash his 13 Lords of Chaos upon Lore. Drakath after uses one of his 'Chaos Balls' to send the undead dragon where DoomKnight Sepulcher's daughter Gravelyn was on flying and crashes into the nearby mountain range.^[11] After the attack, the forces of good (led by King Alteon) and the forces of evil (led by Sepulchure's daughter Gravelyn) form a truce to fight Drakath and the Lords of Chaos. There are already signs of Chaorruption in the nearby forest and marsh causing the player to capture the Chaorrupted Wolves, Chaorrupted Bear, and Chaos Spiders alongside some antidote-based plants to be studied. And so, the Chaos Lord Saga begins.

13 Lords of Chaos Arc

Drakath unleashes his 13 Lords of Chaos upon Lore:

• Escherion — Escherion is a Battle Mage who was the very first Lord of Chaos. He was responsible for attacking Chiral Valley and Mobius with an army of Fire Imps, Chaos Sp-Eyes, Cyclops Raiders, Chainsaw Sneevils, and Gargoyles. Despite that his name came from M. C. Escher, the AQW team also added the inverted looks of Escherion's magic where he inverted the different parts of Mobius. He has the weapon that is called "Staff of Inversion", which can invert anything it could attack. His Chaos Beast is the Chaos Hydra which was awakened by the Runix Cube and eventually defeated when the inverted tower fell onto the Hydra's heads. He was defeated when he struck himself with the Staff of Inversion and caused his spells to rebound on himself, turning himself into a frog.

• Xing and Xang — Xing and Xang are Yin and Yang-type twins that helped a king, queen, or a hero in a journey by giving them choices. But when they stumbled upon Drakath to give him choices, Xang was exchanged into the Mirror Realm with the Evil Xang and there they became the 2nd Lord(s) of Chaos. Later on when the player continues the Mirror Realm Saga, the Xangs are switched back. The Chaos powers combines Xing and Xang into a fallen angel-type being Xiang as the players end up fighting their Chaos Beast called the Chaos Harpy. They then fight Xiang. When Xiang is defeated, her two personalities end up in a dispute as she gets away.

• Vath — Vath is a Drow Dragonlord who is the third Lord of Chaos. He took over the whole Dwarfhold (a place where the dwarves lived) with an army of Drow Soldiers, Drow Assassins, and Chaotic Draconians. He jailed the player along with another dwarf when the player wandered through Vath's lair. As the player escapes, Vath hatches his Chaos Beast called the Rock Roc. Vath was defeated when the player destroys his Dragon Amulet which released Stalagbite from the Dragon Amulet's control. He thanked the players and flew away with Vath to an unknown fate.

• Kitsune — Kitsune is the fourth Lord of Chaos. He is an anthropomorphic fox from Yōkai Isle who was Chaorrupted by Drakath when Kitsune was displeased that Emperor Daisho was letting outsiders onto the island. Within a full-bodied armor, Kitsune persuaded the Kappa Ninjas, Ninja Nopperabos, Samurai Nopperabos, Tanukis, Tsukumo-Gamis, and Funa-Yureis to join his cause into claiming Yokai Island for the Yokai. Kitsune uses the stolen Hanzamune Dragon Koi Blade to release his Chaos Beast called the O-Dokuro from the Rift of Time. After the O-Dokuro and Kitsune are defeated, the player claim the Hanzamune Dragon Koi Blade. When Kitsune starts to charge them, the player unknowingly opens a rift to the Yokai World that Kitsune gets sucked into and then closes it.

• Chaos Wolfwing — Wolfwing is a Werepyre (a half-Werewolf and half-Vampire creature) who is the fifth Lord of Chaos. He was based in Darkovia where he was once an ordinary man who was bitten by a werewolf and then by the Vampire Queen Safira. At some point, Wolfwing was Chaorrupted by Drakath. While building an army of Werepyres, Chaos Wolfwing was Chaorrupting the local werewolves and vampires to his cause. Chaos Wolfwing was using chaos energies to make them more powerful. After the player unites the warring vampires led by Safira and the werewolves led by Constantin, they go on to face Chaos Wolfwing. However, before they can stop him, he bites a chained-up dragon that he had captured with his powers augmented by the full moon. This becomes his Chaos Beast called a Dracowerepyre. The player will then move on to attack Chaos Wolfwing. After defeating him, they can choose to spare his life or kill him. Either way, Shadowhunter Z kills him anyway. When the moon shines on Chaos Wolfwing's remains, his eyes are shown glowing in the pile.

• Kimberly Freeman — The lead singer of One-Eyed Doll was Chaorrupted by Drakath who sang a Chaotic Tune to her which resulted in Kimberly becoming the sixth Lord of Chaos. Using Dischordia (a parody of Erik) as a proxy and the mesmerizing music, she hypnotized the Beatles, the Tune-A-Fish, the Grateful Undeads, the Rock Lobsters, the Stingers, the Pachelbells Cannons, the Mozards, the Music Pirates, and the Flying Music Pirates into attacking Mythsong Canyon in order to disrupt Lorestockapalooza. Upon Kimberly's true colors being discovered, she sends the player back in time to face her Chaos Beast called Pony Gary Yellow (a Triceratops/Dragon hybrid). After Kimberly and her band were defeated, the Chaotic Tune in Kimberly's head is removed as she and the player enable Lorestockapalooza to continue.

• Ledgermayne — The seventh Lord of Chaos. It was originally a mass of mana that was assembled by Drakath's Chaos Magic. It bewitched the Seed Spitters, Gorillaphants (a hybrid of a gorilla and an elephant), Acornents, Karasus, Swamp Frogdrakes, Swamp Lurkers, Anglerfish, Merdraconians, Earth Elementals, Water Elementals, Wind Elementals, Fire Elementals, Volcanic Maggots, Scoria Serpents, Living Fires, Mana Imps, and Mana Falcons to serve it. As the player goes around collecting the four pieces of the Supreme Arcane Staff, Ledgermayne then went against Drakath in order to close the Para-Elemental Plane of Magic. When the player confront Ledgermayne on the Para-Elemental Plane of Magic, Ledgermayne releases its Chaos Beast called the Mana Golem to fight the player. After the Mana Golem was defeated, the player then defeats Ledgermayne where Drakath ended up helping the player to help use the Supreme Arcane Staff to regress Ledgermayne back into the mass of mana that it was created from.

• Tibicenas — The eighth Lord of Chaos. He was an evil djinn who was banished from the Djinn World for tampering with Chaos Magic. The ring containing Tibicenas was found by a hedge-mage named Zahart. Tibicenas used Zahart in his mission to find his Chaos Beast called the Chaos Sphinx and awaken it with the diamond that serves as its heart. After the Chaos Sphinx is defeated and regressed back to its harmless statue state, Zhoom destroys the ring which freed Tibicenas as he brainwashes Zahart into accompanying him to the Djinn World to take revenge on the Efreet that banished him. With the help of the Efreet, the player were able to defeat Tibicenas who explodes which frees Zahart from his control.

• Krellenos — The ninth Lord of Chaos. Krellenos is a Troll Prophet from Bloodtusk Ravine chosen by Xing and Xang to be Drakath's ninth Lord of Chaos. His followers were an army of Chaotic Chinchilizards, Chaotic Horcboars, Chaotic Koalions, Chaotic Lemurphants, Chaotic Rhisons, Chaos Tigriffs, Chaotic Vultures, Chaorrupted Good Soldiers, Chaorrupted Evil Soldiers, Chaorrupted Good Lieutenants, Chaorrupted Evil Lieutenants, Chaos Orc Spirits, and Chaos Troll Spirits. He later Chaorrupted the Arashite Ore of the ancient temple using a Serpentress to do so which transformed the Serpentress into the Naga Baas (formerly the Gruaige Baas), an undead gorgon that is the eighth Chaos Beast. He is later killed by his sister Khasaanda who steals his Chaorrupted powers and usurps his position.
  • Khasaanda — The replacement ninth Lord of Chaos. She is a Troll Prophetess who disliked being laughed at and made fun of by the other Trolls. After Krellenos abandoned her and started to Chaorrupt the heart of the Ancient Temple ruins, she finally decided that she was sick of the rude treatment the other Trolls gave her, and after the Gruaige Baas' defeat, she usurped her own brother's position and had him killed shortly afterwards. She even planned to use her newfound powers in order to get revenge on Drakath for what he had done to Bloodtusk Ravine. When the players defeat Khasaanda, she vows to find Drakath and make him pay for what he had done.

• Iadoa — The tenth Lord of Chaos. He was a renowned Chronomancer (a name given to a magic user that uses time-based magic) and professor who was Chaorrupted by Drakath. First appearing during the 2011-2012 New Year's event trying to ruin the celebration by stopping time with his Chaos magic and using it to mess with the dropping ball, the lab clock, and the hourglass, he was later revealed to be the master of the Span, revealing that the Iadoa the players fought was just a test set up for them, which they passed. Iadoa then agrees to serve as their guide throughout the Span before becoming a full Chaos Lord himself as he hells them how Galanoth slew the Dragon of Time to merge the timelines of the three Artix Entertainment games and told them about Drakath's master in the Mother of All Monsters (AKA the Queen of All Monsters). He later awakens Kathool Atchoo (an ageless giant squid who is the Beast of Chaos) through the defeats of the Carnax (from AdventureQuest), Fluffy the Dracolich (from DragonFable), and the Dragonoid (from MechQuest where its full name is Crystal Dragonoid) after fully becoming a Chaos Lord following the players' passing of all three lessons given to them by himself. Upon being defeated, Iadoa disappears into the timeline to heal himself and return to give the players their final lesson to their destiny.

• Maximilian Lionfang — The eleventh Lord of Chaos. He was a loyal knight on King Alteon's guard who kidnapped the heroes of Lore and planned to have his Golden Onslaught purge the entire world of all of the evils within it. After he and his army were defeated, he met Xing and Xang, who gave him Chaos powers. He later appeared in the Frostval events and threatened to make the world suffer for surrendering to Evil by destroying Frostval itself. He is later revealed to have a younger brother named Xavier Lionfang. Upon attacking the Darkblood city of Falguard in Thunderforge, Maximillian Lionfang later gained the Chaos Manticore (which was created from his own lion) which served as his mode of transportation. Upon his defeat, the Tears of the Mother end up getting absorbed into the rain clouds where Maximilian Lionfang was un-Chaorrupted and fell from the clouds. The Falguard Dreadwatch haven't found his body yet.

• Chaos King Alteon — The twelfth Lord of Chaos. In the beginning of the Chaos saga, he was wounded by Drakath, who left signs of Chaos on his body and armor. As the saga progressed, Alteon was becoming more and more Chaorrupted, despite fighting against the Chaos spreading within him. His transformation into the aforementioned Chaos Lord becomes completed during Princess Brittany and Lord Brentan's wedding. King Alteon brought the Chaos Dragon (a three-headed dragon where two of the heads are of a lion and an eagle) alive from the Dragon Statue following Princess Brittany's death. Following his fight with the players, he succumbed to his wounds and had the players turn to Gravelyn to lead the alliance into fighting Drakath. Following the deaths of King Alteon and Princess Brittany, Princess Victoria is sworn in as the new ruler of Swordhaven while Lord Brentan becomes the King of Swordhaven as they work to rebuild it.

• The Players — Drakath has selected the players to be the 13th Lord of Chaos where their form depends if they choose Chaos Rogue, Chaos Mage, Chaos Healer, or Chaos Berserker. Leading an army of Chaorrupted Healers, Chaorrupted Mages, Chaorrupted Rogues, Chaorrupted Vultures, Chaorruptions (the manifestations of Chaos), Chaos Bandits, Chaos Crystals, Chaos Draconians, Chaos Drifters, Chaos Drows, Chaos Shadowscythes, Chaos Spiders, Chaos Tigriffs, and Chaotic Symbiotes as well as two Chaorrupted Guardian Dragons, the Players' objective from now on in the game is to cause mass-destruction, to slay all the great heroes of the land, to destroy any city remaining in Lore, and to also summon his/her own chaos beast. The players on the side of Chaos has destroyed Willow Creek where they have left a Chaos Challenger behind for the players fighting against Drakath to fight. Then the players on the side of Chaos end up invading Doomwood where they score victory over the paladins of Lightguard Keep. The players on the side of Chaos then invade Darkovia where they succeed in getting to Safira's castle and a trick done by the 13th Lord of Chaos resulted in Safira and her vampire minions falling in battle when Constantin and the werewolves were tricked into attacking the vampires. When the Armies of Chaos invade Valsakar Lair to get the artifact inside, the players on the Alliance side fight the Armies of Chaos in order to buy Gravelyn some time to raise a large army. The 13th Lord of Chaos succeeds in awakening the 13th Chaos Beast in the form of a reborn Eternal Dragon of Time from a dragon egg filling in the final rune at the archway on Mount Doomskull. After the 13th Lord of Chaos resummons the other 12 Chaos Beasts, the 13th Lord of Chaos now makes plans to go after Drakath. It is later revealed that The Players are also The Eternal Dragon of Time. Drakath ends up killing the players and the Eternal Dragon of Time to complete the archway at Mount Doomskull. This causes the players to traverse Death's Realm in order to find a way back to the living and help Gravelyn.

After defeating Death, the players return to the living as the New Death. There are four different outcomes (The update changed into only one fight path rather than four):

• Dragon Battle - Using a Chaos Dragon, the players save Gravelyn and fight Drakath where they have the powers of Death and the Eternal Dragon of Time. The players managed to chop off Drakath's right wing as he claims that he doesn't need that wing to destroy the players. Drakath then summons Desolich to him as the players fight the Chaos Soldiers. After the players get Gravelyn onto Stratos' ship, the Skyguard begins to target Drakath as Drakath Chaorrupts some Skyguard soldiers into Chaoruppted Skyguard. Upon riding a Chaos Dragon to Desolich, the players fight Drakath again. When Desolich tries to chomp down on the players, they break free as Drakath shoots down a Chaos Dragon.

• Vordred Battle - With the help of Artix, the players save Gravelyn and fight Drakath where they have the powers of Death and the Eternal Dragon of Time. The players managed to chop off Drakath's wing as he claims that he doesn't need that wing to destroy the players. Drakath then summons Desolich to him as the players fight the Chaos Soldiers, Evil Warriors, Evil Lieutenants, and Chaos Shadowscythes. As the players and Drakath are fighting, Sally unleashes a rebuilt Vordred to help fight Drakath. It does not go well as Drakath easily defeats Vordred.

• Chaos Battle - Drakath assumes his Champion of Chaos form as he fights the players. Gravelyn appears in her Champion of Light form in order to fight Drakath. When Drakath knocks the players off the cliff, Gravelyn ends up going after the players. The players managed to chop off Drakath's wing as he claims that he doesn't need that wing to destroy the players. Drakath then summons Desolich to him as the players fight the Chaos Soldiers. After the players get Gravelyn onto Stratos' ship, the Skyguard begins to target Drakath as Drakath Chaorrupts some Skyguard soldiers into Chaoruppted Skyguard. Upon riding a Chaos Dragon to Desolich, the players fight Drakath again. As Drakath knocks the players off of Desolich, they find where Escherion's frog form and Khasaanda are imprisoned. As Drakath arrives, Khasaanda warns the players that they must not let Drakath enter the Chaos Realm. Drakath kills Khasaanda and Escherion's frog form stating that the Queen of All Monsters must rise upon all 13 Lords of Chaos being killed.

• Final Battle - Upon arriving at Mount Doomskull, the players save Gravelyn and fight Drakath where they have the powers of Death and the Eternal Dragon of Time. The players managed to chop off Drakath's wing as he claims that he doesn't need that wing to destroy the players. Drakath then summons Desolich to him as the players fight the Chaos Soldiers. After the players get Gravelyn onto Stratos' ship, the Skyguard begins to target Drakath as Drakath Chaorrupts some Skyguard soldiers into Chaoruppted Skyguard. Sally unleashes a rebuilt Vordred to help fight Drakath. It does not go well as Drakath easily defeats Vordred. Upon riding a Chaos Dragon to Desolich, the players fight Drakath again. When Desolich tries to chomp down on the players, they break free as Drakath shoots down a Chaos Dragon. The players then fight their way past the Chaos Dracoliches. During the players's fight with Drakath, he falls into the area where Khasaanda and Escherion's frog form are imprisoned. Khasaanda states to Drakath that he mustn't enter the Chaos Realm. Drakath then kills Khasaanda and Escherion's frog form stating that the Queen of All Monsters must rise upon all 13 Lords of Chaos being killed. After the players defeated a Chaos Warrior, a Chaos Soldier, and a Chaos Bandit, Drakath assumes a secondary appearance and fights the players.

When Drakath enters the Chaos Gate and has the Chaos powers drained from him, Artix and Gravelyn give the players some of their powers where they must sacrifice the powers of the Eternal Dragon of Time in order to enter the Chaos Realm. Once there, the Queen of All Monsters gives Drakath the power to bring back the entire 13 Lords of Chaos to attack the players. After the players bested their Chaos counterpart, the players confront Drakath and fight him once more. Upon the players defeating Drakath, the Queen of All Monsters speaks to Drakath in his mind that he is her salvation and that she is leaving him behind. The players learn from Drakath that the Queen of All Monsters is already on Lore and that the Chaos Titans are rising in a plot to rule all of Lore. Drakath states that he is now fighting against the players and the Queen of All Monsters in order to make Chaos bow to him. Back on Lore, the Queen of All Monsters has risen and new lands are being formed.

Queen of Monsters Arc

After Drakath let the Queen of Monsters loose, refugees from across the world flee to a new continent called Drakonus as the land grows colder and winter storms rage. The player befriends Syrrus, an astromancer who then unintentionally releases the FrostSpawn from the planet Glacera onto Lore. The FrostSpawn are led by Karok the Fallen, the brother of Kezeroth the World Ender. Syrrus and the heroes hold off the FrostSpawn and then they defeat the FrostSpawn General and then the Queen's Gift which was created by the Queen of Monsters. After the players defeat Karok, Syrrus uses his powers to blast Karok far away from them. The players weren't able to find Karok's body as the Queen of Monsters managed to save him. The Queen of Monsters is pleased with Karok's powers and offers an allegiance to him with the Queen of Monsters feeding off of the fear of Lore's inhabitants and Karok ruling Lore. Karok agrees to the terms....for now.

The Queen of Monsters then visits the dream of the Pyromancer Tyndarius where she gives him the knowledge on how to start the Firestorm Onslaught which starts to attack the locations of the Ring of Fire Islands. The players work with the centaur warlord Kyron to fight the Firestorm Onslaught. A few weeks later, Sepulchure's soul communicated with Gravelyn and told her he was alive. Happy with the news, Gravelyn orders half of the undead army to find a powerful dragon body. They go and attack Akriloth, the Lord of the Fire Dragons. They succeeded on capturing Akriloth. Meanwhile, the forces of the Alliance work to stop the Firestorm Onslaught. Although Gravelyn manages to place Sepulchure's soul into Akriloth creating Sepulchuroth, the Queen of Monsters does a spell that sends Sepulchure's soul into the darkness and causing a ceasefire between the three armies to see what the result would be. Part of Sepulchure's soul ends up in Gravelyn's Doomblade. The Firestorm Onslaught raids Feverfew Falls and takes it's inhabitants to Phoenixrise Gate. The players are able to defeat the Blazebinder and Major Thermas (a soldier riding an armored Firestorm Tiger) along the way.

Payment

The main form of payment is membership: a monthly, three-monthly, six-monthly or yearly fee required to access additional game content. However, AQ Worlds can be played for free without this additional game content. Like Artix Entertainment's other games, microtransactions, known in AdventureQuest Worlds as AdventureCoins, can be used to buy most exclusive in-game items. Some Artix Entertainment merchandise also can be redeemed for in-game items.

Reception

Carolyn Koh, from MMORPG.com, stated that "AdventureQuest Worlds is a fun little casual MMO".^[12] Kotaku's Mike Fahey praised the idea of using advertisements when the player died.^[13] Pete Davison, from GamePro, also noted the advertisements at death, calling it an "interesting" idea.^[14]

References

External links

• AdventureQuest Worlds
• AdventureQuest Worlds design notes