TehFrank has been datamining the recent 500mb update on the PTS and has come up with a variety of new information.

Update 18.01.14 – Check out January 2014’s PTS update datamined by TehFrank!

Summary:

• New Pets/Mounts.
• Dungeon Achievements.
  • New “The Gyel Fortress” dungeon.
  • New “Nightmare Coast” dungeon.
• Possible new location/dungeon names.
  • “Luminous Passage” location.
  • “Grotto” Sliver (10-man).
  • “Gyel” Sliver (10-man).
  • “Atragarian Well” location.
  • “Ghar Station Mem” location.
  • “Temple of Ranri” location.
  • Infernal Dawn 5-man?
  • “Moonriven Breach” location.
• Others:
  • A ‘Doctors Without Borders’ promotion.
  • Goboro Reef lighting models.
  • Bits of the Nightmare Rifts model.

As always, anything datamined is subject to change and certain assets may end up not being used.

Full Credit to TehFrank for digging these all up!

New Pets/Mounts

The majority of these seem to be ‘Rooster’/’Budgie’-type Mounts. You can see the saddles for those mounts. The top-left mount skin looks like the one Archonix posted last week:

The Lamb skin is probably for the Lamb Pet that Dead Simon mentioned in a past livestream. Chances are the Shepherd’s Crook item will also come in at the same time (likely a weapon costume).

The top-right model doesn’t have any signs of a saddle and so probably isn’t a mount. My guess is that it’s likely a non-leafy version of the Shambler.

Dungeon Achievements

TehFrank has also dug up a few interesting dungeon achievements as well as an updated Gyel Fortress achievement.

The Gyel Fortress
This is clearly a new dungeon called “The Gyel Fortress”. It has two bosses up thus far although it seems obvious more would be added as work is done on them. The most interesting point is that it states “on standard difficulty level”. This seems to point to this dungeon being a 3.0 dungeon that you do between Level 60 and Level 65.

Reasoning? Other newly-introduced dungeons like Return to Deepstrike and Realm of Twisted Dreams that were added after the majority of players are at level 60 have not had ‘standard difficulty level’ versions.

It’s Getting Crowded In Here
Hound Master Kytus, one of the bosses in “The Gyel Fortress”. One of his achieves for avoiding a mechanic in Expert difficulty. Probably a Wave or cleave mechanic. Hound Masters (those who deal with wolves) tends to be Fire-based.

Multi-Kill
An achievement for Admiral Nezavar in The Gyel Fortress. The names of the mobs are clearly Fire-based. This dungeon is most likely Fire-based and links up to the lore. This particular mechanic seems to be about a reactive ability called Massive Blow, and tons of adds on this fight. Think back to Rusila Dreadblade.

Nightmare Coast
Another new dungeon, “Nightmare Coast” also has a standard difficulty level. Most likely a 3.0 dungeon that ranges between Level 60-65. So far only one boss has been added to the achieve.

Nightmare Coast
The same name but this time with a boss, Lord Arak’s Ritual. The idea of Manifest Terrors and a ‘ritual’ and the name of the dungeon itself seems to suggest this is a Water-based dungeon.

Possible New Locations/Dungeons/Content

A bit of further datamining by TehFrank also revealed some interesting filenames. Of course some of these are already out, such as ‘tm_eggtenderteleporter’ that clearly refers to Eggtenders encounter in Planebreaker Bastion, but others are more interesting.

tm_gr_porticulum_luminouspassage
This is clearly a new location called “Luminous Passage”.  Luminous = bright/intelligent. Intellect is something highly praised and sought after in the Plane of Water.

It sounds like a path, perhaps between the Coral Forest and the Dream City (Draumheim) mentioned in the 3.0 Whiteboard and Plane of Water Image. In fact, ‘bright’ could well pertain to the Lighthouse that is supposed to be help lead players down into the underwater content from the ‘possible starting location’ of the Coral Forest!

tm_gr_grotto_sliver_entrance
An entrance to a new Sliver (10-man Raid) called “Grotto”? Grotto = a type of cave that is often flooded or liable to flood at high tide. Sounds plausible as a new Rift 3.0 10-man Raid.

Given it is a Sliver, this also means that this grotto/flooded-cave is likely also a part of a zone in Rift 3.0 (as Slivers are alternate timelines/universes in a location featured in our present timeline where the respective Plane has ‘won’).

tm_gr_gyel_sliver_entrance
Now this is interesting. Is this referring to “The Gyel Fortress” dungeon, or is “Gyel” perhaps an actual zone/location, and the Fortress is just a part of that. Again, “sliver_entrance” clearly indicates this is a new Sliver (10-man Raid) called “Gyel”. So far all I can find is that “Gyel” is a location in Nigeria…

tm_gr_porticulum_atragarianwell
We have Atragarian Gifts interactive objects in the underwater questline on Ember Isle that gives us a 2hr buff on swim speed and waterbreathing. The Atragarians are referred to a few times as well. This is clearly a new location where a Porticulum is located – probably a quest hub too given most of the other porticulums in the game.

tm_gr_porticulum_gharstationmem
Clearly another location with a porticulum. “Ghar Station Mem”. I’m guessing ‘Ghar’ is just a name for the Station, or perhaps a race/tribe of creatures from the Plane of Water. ‘Station’ clearly sounds like there is perhaps a railway or some other underwater means of fast-transportation – most likely near or in the Dream City (Draumheim).

As for ‘Mem’; the best I can find that makes the most sense is that ‘Mem’ represents the number 1 in something called ‘mematria’. It’s also apparently associated with the element of water.

‘Ghar Station 1’ sounds quite plausible and indicates there are other stations. Like in the Storm Legion zones and their Skyways, the Stations have probably been abandoned and are in disrepair. ‘Station Mem’ might be the only one still left intact.

tm_gr_porticulum_templeofranri
Again another Porticulum at a location. “Temple of Ranri”. “Ranri” could just be a name as the ‘best’ that I’ve found are people’s names and the Japanese romanji らんり ranri which means “dispersed (of citizens in a war-torn country, etc.)”.

So perhaps “Ranri” is a creature/god/goddess that is a guiding light for displaced citizens (perhaps referring to the ‘Dream People’ from the 3.0 Whiteboard). Or perhaps Ranri isn’t referring to a single entity and is just a place for the displaced.

tm_infernal_5_man_start
Now that’s interesting. ‘Infernal Dawn’ was a 20-man Level 50 Tier 3 Raid pre-SL. ‘Infernal Dawn: Laethys’ is a 2-man Level 60 Chronicle. I would have expected an ‘Infernal Dawn: Maelforge’ 2-man Chronicle to show off the Fire Wing portion of the raid.

5-man though? That indicates a Dungeon. Could this be a revamp of the Fire Wing portion of the Raid for Level 60 Expert dungeon?

Update 01.17.14: This most likely refers to the upcoming Bloodfire Stronghold which is located in the Infernal Dawn instance.

Moonriven Breach

Possible location within Goboro Reef called “Moonriven Breach” that was spotted by TehFrank during the small window when the Goboro Reef IA was available in the Instant Adventure queue window (that crashed the game for anyone who accessed it).

Note: As with the other names that we already know about in the above image such as “tm_exodus_RespawnDefiant” which is clearly referring to the Exodus of the Storm Queen dungeon, it is possible that names like “Gyel” and “Grotto” aren’t their full names.

TehFrank has suggested that the “gr” that you see in most of the above could refer to “Goboro Reef” which is likely one of the new zones in 3.0. Certainly makes sense.

Others

• Doctors Without Borders promotion with a Nurse Bogling, medical supplies and a Rift Store promo page.
• Goboro Reef lighting models. Nothing major, but just reconfirming that Goboro Reef is in fact a new zone.
• Bits of the Nightmare Rift model. TehFrank datamined an achievement for a Rank 1 Nightmare Rift back in November.

Further Information

Check out some other information datamined by TehFrank:

• January 2014’s PTS update datamined by TehFrank!