The Arena
In the Arena vampires hunt each other. Every challenge costs 1 Action, win or lose. Use Find a Rival for a fair fight near your level, Quick Search for vampires you can fight right now, or your Blacklist to keep your rivals close.
• Stamina is your Lifeforce.
• Strength drives your blows, and makes your weapon land harder.
• Agility gives you more of the turns and more dodges.
• Endurance turns aside part of every blow you take.
Stats work against each other, so a build that neglects one pays for it. Your gear, enchantments and companion add to all of this, and every percentage bonus is softened past +50% and stops at +80%. Alignment can let you cast Revitalize (Light) or Suffering (Dark) a few times a fight.
• Aggressive: +12% damage, but you take 8% more. Beats Evasive.
• Guarded: 10% less damage dealt and taken. Beats Aggressive.
• Evasive: 5% less damage, +5% dodge. Beats Guarded.
The stance that counters the other side's deals 16% more damage. For defence you set a stance mix (shares of each, in steps of 10%) on the Arena page; attackers can't see it.
Gold from other players is capped: each vampire can receive at most 50,000 + 10,000 × level gold a day from the Arena, gifts, trades, the Market, orders, bounties and coven payouts together. Vampires under level 50, or below 90% of the winner's level, lose no gold. A coven may tax its members' Arena gold (never their Blood).
A losing attacker's gear wears a little. Defenders don't take wear.
• for 5 minutes after any Arena fight (the Battle Limiter);
• in their first nights as a newblood;
• more than once every 2 hours by the same attacker (twice with a Silver Vial's Frenzy);
• for 6 hours after you have beaten them;
• once they have lost 3 defences in 6 hours (Bled dry).
A district's wardens answer to the coven that holds it: inside their own district, members are protected for 12 hours after a defeat and are escorted home after 2 lost defences. There are no fines and no Heat. The Arena shows the shield and the time left before you spend anything.
Once a week a warden breaks its beat and goes rogue somewhere in the city for three nights. The whole city shares one health bar: 2 Actions a swing, up to 10 swings a night. When it falls, everyone who landed a blow gets Spire Brass, Clockwork Gears, Lantern Glass, Blood and the Engine-breaker title, and a few find a Rusted Sentinel familiar has followed them home.
If you are in a coven, the winner also owes your coven a Blood debt for 24 hours. Any member who beats the debtor before it runs out collects it: +25% Blood and gold from that fight (the gold still within the daily limit), 25 Devotion for the coven, and double Gate points if the debtor's coven is your war enemy. Collect ten for the title Debt Collector. Ranked, team and coterie fights never make or pay debts. See Covens.
• Seasons run for a calendar month. Rating starts at 1,000.
• Brackets: levels 1 to 99, 100 to 249, and 250 and up. You meet rivals at 90% of your level or higher, outside your coven, each at most once a day and three times a season.
• Divisions: Thrall, Fledgling (900), Stalker (1,100), Nightlord (1,250), Elder (1,400) and Methuselah (1,550). From Stalker up, a season title, a portrait frame and Blood Opals (no opals in the 1 to 99 bracket). The top vampire of each bracket becomes that season's Arena Champion.
• Rewards need at least 10 Ranked fights in the season, against several different rivals. They are paid on your first Arena visit after the month turns.
How a fight works
Fights are decided by the same combat core everywhere stats meet: the Arena, the Gate in coven wars and Coterie Battles.• Stamina is your Lifeforce.
• Strength drives your blows, and makes your weapon land harder.
• Agility gives you more of the turns and more dodges.
• Endurance turns aside part of every blow you take.
Stats work against each other, so a build that neglects one pays for it. Your gear, enchantments and companion add to all of this, and every percentage bonus is softened past +50% and stops at +80%. Alignment can let you cast Revitalize (Light) or Suffering (Dark) a few times a fight.
Stances
Pick a stance for each fight:• Aggressive: +12% damage, but you take 8% more. Beats Evasive.
• Guarded: 10% less damage dealt and taken. Beats Aggressive.
• Evasive: 5% less damage, +5% dodge. Beats Guarded.
The stance that counters the other side's deals 16% more damage. For defence you set a stance mix (shares of each, in steps of 10%) on the Arena page; attackers can't see it.
Spoils
The winner gains Blood (more for beating a higher level, less for a lower one) and gold: a small purse plus a fifteenth of the gold the loser carries. Banked gold is never touched. The loser loses no Blood but falls to 0 Lifeforce until they heal or the next Revival.Gold from other players is capped: each vampire can receive at most 50,000 + 10,000 × level gold a day from the Arena, gifts, trades, the Market, orders, bounties and coven payouts together. Vampires under level 50, or below 90% of the winner's level, lose no gold. A coven may tax its members' Arena gold (never their Blood).
A losing attacker's gear wears a little. Defenders don't take wear.
The warden-engines
The city's brass warden-engines stand over every fight. A vampire under the watch can't be challenged:• for 5 minutes after any Arena fight (the Battle Limiter);
• in their first nights as a newblood;
• more than once every 2 hours by the same attacker (twice with a Silver Vial's Frenzy);
• for 6 hours after you have beaten them;
• once they have lost 3 defences in 6 hours (Bled dry).
A district's wardens answer to the coven that holds it: inside their own district, members are protected for 12 hours after a defeat and are escorted home after 2 lost defences. There are no fines and no Heat. The Arena shows the shield and the time left before you spend anything.
Once a week a warden breaks its beat and goes rogue somewhere in the city for three nights. The whole city shares one health bar: 2 Actions a swing, up to 10 swings a night. When it falls, everyone who landed a blow gets Spire Brass, Clockwork Gears, Lantern Glass, Blood and the Engine-breaker title, and a few find a Rusted Sentinel familiar has followed them home.
Revenge and Blood debts
When you lose a defence you get a notice with a link straight back to your attacker, and your Battle History offers a Revenge button for 24 hours.If you are in a coven, the winner also owes your coven a Blood debt for 24 hours. Any member who beats the debtor before it runs out collects it: +25% Blood and gold from that fight (the gold still within the daily limit), 25 Devotion for the coven, and double Gate points if the debtor's coven is your war enemy. Collect ten for the title Debt Collector. Ranked, team and coterie fights never make or pay debts. See Covens.
Bounties
Post a bounty on a vampire at the Bounty Board: at least 1,000 gold per level of the target, plus a 10% fee. Whoever beats them in the Arena claims the highest bounty on their head. Bounties last 30 days.Ranked Arena
Ranked is a separate mode for glory, not gold. Both vampires fight at full Lifeforce, nothing is stolen, and Ranked fights don't count toward the protection rules above. Each Ranked fight costs 1 Action, and you get 5 a day.• Seasons run for a calendar month. Rating starts at 1,000.
• Brackets: levels 1 to 99, 100 to 249, and 250 and up. You meet rivals at 90% of your level or higher, outside your coven, each at most once a day and three times a season.
• Divisions: Thrall, Fledgling (900), Stalker (1,100), Nightlord (1,250), Elder (1,400) and Methuselah (1,550). From Stalker up, a season title, a portrait frame and Blood Opals (no opals in the 1 to 99 bracket). The top vampire of each bracket becomes that season's Arena Champion.
• Rewards need at least 10 Ranked fights in the season, against several different rivals. They are paid on your first Arena visit after the month turns.