A new 510MB update has been released on the Public Test Shard (PTS) which is likely another part of Patch 2.6. This is on top of the 500MB update back on December which added in some of the 2.6 stuff as well as Fae Yule additions.

Note: This isn’t the full Patch 2.6.

Summary:

• The ‘Bloodfire’ – Strongholds and Zone Events.
• Stronghold Boosters.
• New World Event: “Air Saga”.
• Unstable Artifacts.
• Black Tier Loyalty Rewards up.
• New Quests in Seratos – Possibly Mariel-Taun Day-related.
• New NPCs in Necropolis.
• Others:
  • Land/Amphibious/Water Mount Classification + New Mount?
  • Porticulum UI Revamp.
  • Dream Weaving – Medium Lights recipes.
  • Active Dimensions increased to 20 (up from 10).
  • Character Achieves.
  • General Batua and Queen Miela.
  • Arbiter and Crusader Synergy Crystals Up.
  • Further TehFrank Datamining.

Patch 2.6

Firstly, a few things about Patch 2.6.

It will be releasing over time, like 2.5

It won’t be here in two weeks’ time.

Dev_MikeD mentioned that in two weeks’ time there will be ‘another big build’ with a bunch of fixes coming in on PTS. As such, it is unlikely that 2.6 will be hitting Live in the first week of February.

However, if they stick to the original estimate, it’ll come out some time in February.

Original estimates by Trion were a January release for 2.6 on PTS and a Live release some time in February. So they’re still on track.

The “Bloodfire”

There’s 405 new Achievements under Planes -> Fire, all related to the “Bloodfire”. There’s 7 new Stronghold bosses as well as a new Zone Event “Bloodfire Behemoth” that can appear in almost every zone.

Bloodfire Strongholds

The seven Bloodfire Strongholds are as follows:

• Charr’Denor
• Cinduryun
• Melidrak
• Pyrongryo
• Renak Ladne
• Swarmlord Ilodron
• Warlord De’Ator

You need an item called an Infernal Conduit dropped during the Bloodfire Behemoth Zone Event in order to access the instance and to summon each boss. These are 5-man bosses although you can have more than 5 players in the instance. There are Level 15, 30 and 60 version of these Strongholds that you can access via portals within the instance.

Defeating a Bloodfire Stronghold boss gives you “Burning Core” (Bound on Account) item that is used to upgrade a “Torrid Ember” item. Once this Torrid Ember reaches Level 50, it becomes a Magma Walker Mount.

A more detailed write-up about the Bloodfire Strongholds concept is available here:

PTS News: Bloodfire Strongholds

Bloodfire Behemoth Zone Event

As for the rest of the achievement points – each zone has its own achieve for locating Commander Rogynre, Lord Warfyre, Oldoron the Charred, Herodithus or Amon T’Drok during the Bloodfire Behemoth zone event as well as completing the zone event itself.

Given the nature of the achieves, it seems the Bloodfire Behemoth zone event is – at the very least – slightly different depending on which zone it spawns in:

• “Locate Commander Rognyre” is an achieve for Freemarch, Silverwood, Stonefield and Gloamwood.
• “Locate Lord Warfyre” is an achieve for Iron Pine Peak and Scarwood Reach.
• “Locate Oldoron the Charred” is an achieve for Droughtlands and Ember Isle.
• “Locate Herodithus” is an achieve for Kingdom of Pelladane, Cape Jule, Seratos, Eastern Holdings and Morban.
• “Locate Amon T’Drok” is an achieve for Ashora, The Dendrome and Steppes of Infinity.

Meta Achieves

There’s a few meta achieves available in relation to the Bloodfire. Defeating all bosses in the Bloodfire Strongholds gives you the “Incinerator” title; completing all Bloodfire Behemoth zone events gets you the “Bloodbane” title; completing all the hunter (for specific named mobs) in each zone during this zone event gives you the “Huntsman/Huntswoman” title.

Finally, defeating 100 bosses in Bloodfire Strongholds gets you an Infernal Plate Helm (Infernal Dawn Warrior Helm) and a Relic Crucia’s Supply Crate.

Stronghold Boosters

New item under Rift Store -> Rifts -> Consumable and also available from Flare Merchants.

These are consumables that last for 1 hour and provide double or triple the chance to obtain Essences from defeating Stronghold bosses in The Dendrome. It says “Expires in 80 days” because these items are only available during a special, limited-time event in the future. So Trion don’t want you having them in your bag for too long.

My guess is that they’ll be available during the upcoming “Air Saga World Event” (more info below) because it introduces those 7 new Bloodfire Strongholds bosses.

Tip: If you still have Inscribed Sourcestone (old Level 50 open world currency) left over from pre-SL, consider exchanging them for Vaults of Planarite in IPP. You can also exchange 50 Infinity Stones for 500 Planarite from the Voucher merchants.

New World Event “Air Saga”

A new “Air Saga” World Event will come under way at some point. Note that the dates are placeholder-only:

Currently on the PTS the Air Saga quests are incomplete, but here’s two achieves that are already up:

These two can be found under Achievements -> Planes -> Air. The Title: “Infinite” looks like it’s a prefix, which is fantastic (need more prefixes!).

As you’ll notice, there’s quite a bit about the Plane of Fire, especially in regards to this Bloodfire army that apparently attempted an insurgence against the original leaders of the Plane of Fire, but failed and are now attempting to use Telara as a base. Will this lead to a Plane of Fire-based expansion after the Plane of Water? Who knows.

Dev MikeD rotated quickly through some of the Air Saga World Event parts and I was able to quickly grab a screenshot of them before they were taken down (reverted back to Phase 2).

Looks like new quests for the Epic Air Saga questchain will be introduced with each phase.

Phase 2 will also have the Bloodfire Behemoth Zone Events. Since you need Infernal Conduits that drop from these zone events in order to open Bloodfire Strongholds – it looks like the Bloodfire Strongholds won’t be accessible until Phase 2.

Phase 3 will add “The Bloodfire Army” and “The Power of Nightmares” zone events.

Phase 4 was also datamined by TehFrank:

The final quests for the Air Saga will be available in Tempest Bay during Phase 4 of the event.

If the Air Saga is anything like the Wanton Maw Saga that was created with the War of the Wanton Maw World Event – it is likely that there are other rewards besides the Magma Walker mount – so look forward to that!

NPC Sanrare Emorra

Just like during Fashion Week and Mech Week, there’s an NPC in Tempest Bay right at the front in the middle pavilion. Speak to her to get a quest to speak to either Cyril Kalmer in Sanctum or the Defiant equivalent.

If you aren’t high enough level for Tempest Bay – you’ll probably be directed to Cyril or the Defiant equivalent. And thus begins the Epic Air Saga!

Unstable Artifacts

The ~1,200 Unstable Artifacts and approx. 130-150 Unstable Artifact Sets are up on the PTS!

The Jist

• Unstable Artifacts are blue.
• They appear during Unstable zone events that last 30min.
• Each Unstable Artifact Set rewards a Planar Nut currency.
• Planar Nuts can be used to purchase Planar Squirrel Mounts from the Artifact Vendor.

Planar Squirrel Mounts

Note: These are likely initial skins – might not be what they look like in the end. Also, according to Dev_MikeD, they may possibly each leave a ‘trail’ effect which cannot be seen in the preview (they are static in the preview).

These are 3 of the 6 Planar Squirrel Mounts. The other 3 don’t have skins that have been updated to look different from the Brown Squirrel Mount.

These each cost 23 Planar Nuts gained from completing Unstable Artifact Sets. If you want all 6, you’ll need 138 Planar Nuts (or in other words, 138 Unstable Artifact sets completed).

There is an achieve for obtaining each Planar Squirrel Mount – and collecting all 6 rewards you with a “Planar Squirrel Feeder” interactive item where you can summon the planar squirrels onto a friendly player.

Unstable Artifact Set Rewards

Some of the Unstable Artifact sets will have individual rewards. Above are the ones that are up in the Trophy section of the Rift Store as well as from your Artifact Vendor.

Once the Unstable Artifact set is unlocked, you can keep buying more of these. They cost either Lucky Coins or Credits. (the initial one you get from completing the Unstable Artifact set is free).

If you want to know what some of the items do, check out the preview in last week’s Livestream Summary:

• Livestream Summary: January 10th 2014

Unstable: Zone Events

Unstable zone events can appear in any zone and are prefaced with “Unstable: [Zone]”. They last for 30min in which Unstable Artifacts (blue glow) will appear all over the zone.

Just like any other zone event, you get zone event rewards that are similar to other regular zone events. I.e. – a Level 60 zone event will give:

• 10x Crystallized Insight (PA XP)
• Mark of Notoriety
• 150-180 IS

All you need to do to tag the zone event (and thus obtain the zone event rewards once the 30min is over) is to collect a single Unstable Artifact.

Thus far there’s only been one Unstable zone event up at a time. Avid artifact hunters (or dimensioneers or squirrel-lovers) may benefit from cross-shard hopping.

Unstable: Trackers

With the introduction of Unstable Artifacts, there is a new Unstable Artifact Hunter’s Tracking Vial on the PTS for  480 Credits (432 for Patron) each. Note that Patron’s Artifact Tracking Vials do not track Unstable Artifacts.

Unstable Achieves

Trion have gone bonkers with Unstable achievements. As you can see above in the meta achieve, there’s an achieve for every zone when completing the Unstable Artifact sets for each of those zones.

The Meta achieve gives “Stabilizer” title. Each zone also has its own Stabilizer title with the syntax “[Zone] Stabilizer”. I.e., “Gloamwood Stabilizer” and “City Core Stabilizer”.

Each one of Zone Unstable achieves gives 100 Achievement Points, and the meta gives 80.

There’s also an achievement for collecting all Unstable Books – which seems to come from specific Unstable Artifact Sets.

You are rewarded with a “Dream Desk” dimension item. The preview doesn’t show much – but I have this odd inkling that you’ll be able to interact with this desk and read the Unstable books.

Black-Tier Loyalty Rewards

The Black Tier of Loyalty that everyone saw in last week’s Livestream is up on the PTS, rewards-included!

The in-between rewards prior to max are as follows:

• 280,000 = 3x Spring Loaded Pow Kickers (reduce time to mount by 50% for 30min).
• 840,000 = Sparkles Companion Pet.
• 1,400,000 = 3x Dungeon Charge.
• 1,960,000 = Summon Friend Boost (reduce CD of Summon Friend by 15min).
• 2,520,000 = Transcendent Trove of Boosts (Contains 1x Transcendent Experience Vial, Favor Vial, Notoriety Vial, Prestige Vial, Skill Sphere and Token Tablet).

The max 2,800,000 Loyalty rewards are:

• Writ of the Prestigious = Grants title: “The Prestigious”.
• Bag of Infinite Possibilities = 36-slot Bag.
• Treasure Map Boost = “Increases Exp, Notoriety & Token Currency gained from all souces by 15%”.
• Ability: Summon Portable Auctioneer = Summon Portable Auctioneer.
• Gift of the Auctionista = Increases amount of items that can be placed up for auction by 50.
• Prestigious Portrait = Grants you the ability to display a prestigious portrait.

Prestigious Portrait

TehFrank datamined what the Black Tier’s Prestigious Portrait looks like. Has a slightly oriental theme (colors too) – Shi-Ming? (keep prodding that topic!).

New Quests in Seratos

A series of new quests are available at Necropolis in Seratos with Prepo Detolo attempting to woo Ania Porti. The quests seems to suggest it may be related to Mariel-Taun Day (Valentine’s Day).

There’s also a new achievement attached:

Credit to hardy83 for finding this!

New NPCs in Necropolis

Necropolis is a lot more ‘alive’ on the PTS than it is on Live. There’s a lot more NPCs as well as a mini-market on the Middle Level.

Also, there’s a huge plethora of Hooded Stranger NPCs all over Necropolis. Most likely in relation to the new Air Saga questchain coming with 2.6, although there could be other reasons for their appearance.

Others

A few other things of note:

• Land/Amphibious/Water Mount Classification + New Mount?.
• Porticulum UI Revamp.
• Dream Weaving – Medium Lights recipes.
• Character Achieves.
• General Batua and Queen Miela.
• Arbiter and Crusader Synergy Crystals Up.

Land Mount Classification

All mounts have been updated with a new “Land Mount” classification in their tooltips. Swimming/Underwater Mounts incoming?

Update: TehFrank on the Rift Forums has found the following whilst datamining:

• Amphibious Mount@TooltipRolloverItem
• Land Mount@TooltipRolloverItem
• Water Mount@TooltipRolloverItem

This seems to indicate that there will indeed be mounts that will be able to swim, as well as ones that can do both!

New Mount?

In the Jan17PTS datamining zip file that TehFrank posted on the Rift Forums, there seems to be what looks like a new Water or Amphibious Mount skin!

It looks like a ‘Water Drake’-type creature from the body (which looks like it has ‘wings’). Gills and Fins-abound; clearly Water-based. But could potentially also be able to move above ground (thus Amphibious).

Porticulum UI Revamp

The Porticulum Masters have gotten new UI’s. Instead of the two text options to go to Mathosia or Storm Legion, there is now a mini-map. Hover over the area you want to go to and it’ll bring up the main map for that area.

A bit too much space between Bind Soul and the mini-map – but I’m sure that’ll be adjusted before live.

Dream Weaving – Medium Lights Recipes

Medium Lights are up at the Dream Weaving Grandmaster Trainer. There were originally Small Lights in the December PTS update, but now there’s Medium lights! Wonder if they’ll add Large Lights later on!

Active Dimensions increased to 20!

The amount of Active Dimensions you can have up at once has increased to 20 (up from 10)! That should be more than enough for all but the most hardcore of dimensioneers out there!

Each additional slot above 10 costs 100 Platinum or 1,080 Credits each. Unknown if these are placeholder costs or not.

Thanks to Aeryle on the Rift Forums for discovering this addition!

Character Achieves

Some of the achievements in the Character category have been expanded to take into account all the new Companion Pets, Mounts and Artifacts. You may find yourself with a few extra achievement points when 2.6 hits on Live.

The old limits were:

• 60 Mounts (now 100)
• 75 Companion (now 100)
• 750 Artifacts (now 1,000)

For Artifact collectors, the new 1,000-Artifact achieve title reward is “Excessive Antiquarian”.

General Batua and Queen Miela

Intriguingly, General Batua now appears right outside the Haunted Terminal next to that new NPC with the daily mentioned during the December update. My guess is that he’s there for “A Hero Rises” Chronicle – perhaps to continue on after the events of that chronicle with a new quest for you after you finish it as part of the Epic Air Saga questline.

Similarly, Queen Miela now appears next to Neval at the Chancel of Labors in Iron Pine Peak. Again, probably part of the new Air Saga.

Arbiter and Crusader Synergy Crystals

The Synergy Crystals for Cleric’s Crusader (Support) soul and Mage’s Arbiter (Tank) soul slated for Rift 3.0 are up in the Master Mode version of Dummy Foundry!

• Instructions on how to enter Dummy Foundry on the PTS.

Further TehFrank Datamining

Check out some more stuff that TehFrank’s datamined files for the current PTS update have revealed in the below article:

• January 2014’s PTS update datamined by TehFrank!

Look forward to Patch 2.6! Dev_MikeD also mentioned that in about two weeks’ time there would be another update to the PTS – so look forward to that too!

Want more information on Patch 2.6? Check out the following articles!:

• PTS News: Bloodfire Strongholds
• Livestream Summary: 10th January 2014
• PTS News: 500MB Update + Dreamweaving Profession
• PTS News: Jan 29th Patch 2.6 Update on PTS