The Carnival of the Ascended is an annual World Event that celebrates RIFT’s anniversary from back on Feb 26th 2011 (pre-launch, official is March 1st 2011) with various Carnival games and associated Carnival goods. A whole plethora of mounts, essences, costumes, pets, disguises and titles are available to be purchased with event currency – Auroral Doubloons, Glass Beads and Prize Tickets!

The Carnival of the Ascended 2015 celebrates RIFT’s 4th anniversary. This year the event lasts for three weeks from 26th February to 19th March 2015.

Table of Contents:

• Overview and Summary for Veterans
• Store Items
• Vouchers/Currency Exchange
• Goboro Reef Instant Adventure
• Minion Promo Adventure
• Games/Quests Guide
• Achievements

Overview

The Carnival of the Ascended celebrates Rift’s Anniversary and the Ascended’s past achievements in conquering the false Dragon Gods. Telarans have set up a variety of Carnival Games in the major cities and Dragon Pinatas spawn throughout all Mathosia/Storm Legion zones with a chance at past world event items.

Each week will award Auroral Doubloons that you can use to purchase some of the old Carnival mounts. You can find the vast majority of Carnival goods from the RIFT Store -> World Event section.

Note: Only 3 Doubloons will be available this year via weekly quest; one per week. [r] However, you can obtain Doubloons as a chance drop from the Pinata boss in Goboro Reef Instant Adventures during this World Event, and as a drop from 6-star 10hr Carnival Promotional minion adventures.

Summary for Veterans

Are you a veteran of RIFT and experienced the Carnival last year? Here’s a quick summary of what’s different:

• New Store Items: Carousal Ram Mount, Carnival Masks, Weapons, Pets, 4th Anniversary Cape and 4th Birthday Cake. There’s also new Dimension ‘Bubble’ items.
• New Quest: John Tintan in the Carnival hubs at Sanctum (7402, 3097) and Meridian (6171, 5194) has three turn-in dailies for NT mats.
• New Quest: Sijay Creg in the Carnival hubs at Sanctum (7420, 3146) and Meridian (6178, 5210) has new daily to complete 5x Instant Adventures.
• Goboro Reef IA. Goboro Reef Instant Adventure bosses now drop Pinata Prize Bags. Each bag gives random loot from past World Events, including pets, masks, food, event currency (several Prize Tickets or Glass Beads) and even past mounts!

Store Items

There’s a whole plethora of Store Items introduced with the Carnival of the Ascended – both old and new alike. I’ll only be going over the new items for 2015. You can refer to the 2014 guide for older store items.

All Carnival goods can be found under RIFT Store -> World Event.

Carousal Ram Mount

The Carousel Ram Mount is a new mount that you can obtain as a rare chance drop from the Limited Edition: Twisted Carousel Ram Trove. This lockbox is available in the RIFT Store -> Chests & Keys section for 700 Credits (630 for Patrons).

New Companion Pets

Percy Quackerton, Calypso and Tinkerton are the new companion pets for Carnival 2015. You can obtain them under RIFT Store -> World Event for either 475 Prize Tickets or 600 Credits (540 for Patrons) each.

New Carnival Masks & Weapons

Each Carnival seems to bring in a set of new Carnival masks, and this year is no different. A variety of new Carnival masks and weapon costumes available on the RIFT Store -> World Event. They cost Prize Tickets or Credits each.

Fourth Anniversary Cape

The Fourth Anniversary Cape is up! In an on-going tradition, RIFT adds a new anniversary cape for each anniversary. Above you can check out a comparison between the 2nd, 3rd and 4th anniversary capes. The Fourth Anniversary Cape costs 300 Prize Tickets or 450 Credits (405 for Patrons).

You cannot obtain previous years’ capes from the RIFT Store.

4 Year Birthday Cake

In another tradition for RIFT, a new Birthday Cake is available on the RIFT Store -> World Event. Again though, you cannot obtain previous years’ cakes anymore.

New Essences

There are new Level 65 Essences for Carnival 2015 that cost either 1,536 Glass Beads and 12k Planarite, or 1,280 Credits (1,152 for Patrons).

The essences were upgraded as of RIFT 3.1 Hotfix #6, as per the above image. Each class’ Level 65 essence uses the same stats, just replacing WIS/INT or STR/DEX with their main stat.

Dimension Items

New in 2015 for dimensioneers are various planar ‘Bubble’ items that are literally giant bubbles in certain colors. Check out The Dimension Touring Company’s article which shows previews of the new bubble items here.

Vouchers/Currency Exchange

Voucher NPCs

You can send all the prize tickets and glass beads on your alts to your main via Voucher merchants in Sanctum, Meridian and Tempest Bay.

No additional costs are required for the vouchers and they come in bundles of 1 or 25 for both Glass Beads and Prize Tickets. The vouchers allow you to send the Carnival currencies to other characters on your account.

Currency Exchange

There are currency exchange vendors in Sanctum and Meridian.

• Perdel <Moneychanger> in Sanctum at (7403, 3120).
• Rakim the Thrifty <Moneychanger> in Meridian at (6117, 5181).

The Moneychanger NPCs provide the following conversions:

• 5 Prize Tickets for 1 Glass Bead (horrible conversion);
• 50 Glass Beads for 1 Prize Ticket (‘decent’ if you just need a few more Prize Tickets);
• 1 Auroral Doubloon for 50 Prize Tickets;
• 1 Pyrite Doubloon for 1 Auroral Doubloon.

Note: The Pyrite Doubloons were the limited currency for the 2012 Carnival of the Ascended. The limited currency has been the Auroral Doubloon ever since. Thus if you weren’t here back in 2012 and don’t have any Pyrite Doubloons lying around, the “Pyrite-to-Auroral Doubloon” conversion is irrelevant to you.

Goboro Reef Instant Adventure

Doing Goboro Reef Instant Adventures, you’ll eventually get to a Pinata ‘boss’! The boss will drop a Pinata Prize Bag which contains a random chance at past World Event pets, costumes, prize tickets, glass beads and even mounts! (saw someone get a Tindrel mount).

There’s even a chance at 1x Auroral Doubloon! (Thanks to AsHu for the info!)

Prize Ticket values can be 40+. Seen some players loot 66.

And here’s some examples. Note that each ‘box’ is a separate person’s loot from the Pinata Prize Bag. As you can see, they’ve got Carnival foods, companion pets, Masks, Prize Ticket currency, Glass Beads currency and even a mount (in this case, Tindrel)!

The Prize Ticket amount is nice (approx. 60-70), but you’ll also have to consider how long it takes to complete Goboro Reef IAs. It does go well with the 5x Instant Adventure daily quest obtained from Sijay Creg (more info in the Games/Quests Guide below) and with the 30x Instant Adventure weekly quest obtained from Flargle Plaza in Draumheim.

Note: This particular Pinata is different from the other Dragon Pinatas that you can find throughout Mathosia/Storm Legion zones as multi-colored balloon icons on the main map. Those require that you mentor down and will provide a random chance at old World Event loot and/or Glass Beads currency.

Minion Promo Adventures

There’s new 10hr Promo Adventures for Minions specific to the Carnival of the Ascended. Thus far information seems to suggest that obtaining a 6-star rating on the adventure will get you an Auroral Doubloon.

Loot: Some loot that’s been seen from the adventures include Carnival weapon costume, Carnival food, world event companion pets, Glass bead currency and an Auroral Doubloon.

• 6-star rated 10hr Carnival adventures will drop Limited Edition: Twisted Carousel Ram Troves which have a rare chance of dropping the Twisted Carousel Ram mount.

Just make sure to note that 10hr minion adventures generally have a 60min cooldown before they are added back to a random position in the 10hr adventure deck.

(Thanks to Turntablist@Greybriar and Orminis for the info!)

Games/Quests Guide

Below is a guide to the Carnival Games/Quests related to the Carnival of the Ascended World Event.

Carnival Games Locations

The Carnival Games and Quests are located in Sanctum, Meridian, Shimmersand and Tempest Bay.

• Sanctum – To the left of the main Messengers of the Vigil Statue outside Sanctum building.
• Meridian – In the middle courtyard in-between the Inner and Outer Walls.
• Shimmersand – Right outside Fortune’s Shore where all the boats are docked.
• Tempest Bay – At the Docks.

Phase 1 Quests

Phase 1 starts on the 26th Feb 2015 and ends on the 5th March 2015.

Phase 1 Quest – Auroral Doubloon

The quest to obtain an Auroral Doubloon currency during Phase 1 is obtained in your home city:

• Sanctum – Carmichael the Clubfoot <Barker> located at (7420, 3143).
• Meridian – Bokk the Squint-Eye <Barker> located at (6193, 5178).

The quest involves completing 50 carnival games. Don’t panic though! This quest includes group contribution – so if someone else in your group finishes a carnival game, it counts to your quest completion.

By joining a large group/raid like a Balloon-Stomping raid; you should be able to finish this quest very quickly.

Reward: Auroral Doubloons and a Carnival Celebration Crate.

Note: Previous Doubloon quests will remain available throughout the event so if you missed the first week you can still get the quest done. [r]

Building the Parade Floats (Daily Quest/Turn-in)

Building the Parade Floats is a Daily quest located in Sanctum and Meridian. The quest is obtained from the two NPCs in each home city based on whether you have Gathering and/or Crafting Professions:

• Sanctum: [ Gathering ] – [ Crafting ]
• Meridian: [ Gathering ] – [ Crafting ]

Reward: 25x Glass Beads
Objective: Create [something] with [something]

Pretty much every Crafting Profession except Dream Weaver (excludes Fishing + Survival) can receive a quest to change Traveling [Craft] Kits into ingredients needed to complete the quest.

You will need to use Pumice Stones, Ultra-Thin Hides and Helium Blossoms that you obtain from Gathering nodes in the open world during the world event.

• Outfitter = 5 Ultra-Thin Hides
• Artificer = 5 Ultra-Thin Hides
• Weaponsmith = 5 Pumice Stones
• Armorsmith = 5 Pumice Stones
• Runecrafter = 5 Flickering Powders
• Apothecary = 5 Helium Blossoms

You will need to be near the Parade Grounds crafting cart outside your home city [ Sanctum ] [ Meridian ] and use the ‘Traveling [Craft] Kit’ Quest Item.

• Pumice Stone: Gained from mining ores. Mining Profession.
• Ultra-Thin Hide: Gained from butchering mobs. Butchering Profession.
• Helium Blossom: Gained from foraging plants and wood. Foraging Profession.

As well as the craft quests, there are also Gathering turn-ins for turning in Pumice Stone, Ultra-Thin Hide and Helium Blossoms.

Planar Imports (Daily Quest/Turn-in) (New)

Some new ‘Planar Imports’ quests are now available for turning in Nightmare Tide craft materials. You can find John Tintan in Sanctum (7402, 3097) and Meridian (6171, 5194).

Objective: There are three turn-ins:

• Planar Imports – Exotic Luxuries: Collect 10x Thalasite Crystals and 20x Sarfiber Flakewood.
• Planar Imports – Wondrous Materials: Collect 10x Diaphanous Cloth and 15x Fabled Leather.
• Planar Imports – Strange Delicacies: Collect 15x Brisket, 15x Merphos and 15x Zirthan Dreamleeches.

Reward: Each turn-in rewards 15x Glass Beads.

These items can be collected with gathering professions such as Fishing, Foraging, Butchering and Mining in the Plane of Water zones: Goboro Reef, Draumheim and Tarken Glacier.

Adventures of the Rich and Famous! (Daily Quest) (New)

Adventures of the Rich and Famous! is a new daily quest for 2015 found in Silverwood/Meridian. The quest is obtained from Sijay Creg <Publicist> at Sanctum (7420, 3146) and Meridian (6178, 5210).

Reward: 25x Glass Beads
Objective:

• Complete 5x Instant Adventures
• Impress the crowds in your home city with tales of your adventures

To access Instant Adventures, go to your Instant Adventure window (default key “.“) or find your mini menu bar on your screen, click on the ‘play’ (Activities) button and choose Instant Adventure from the drop-down menu.

After completing 5 IAs, you will need to stand on the platform next to Sijay Creg. Once on it, you’ll get a reactive “Open Mic”. Use it to complete the quest.

Tales of the Ascended (Daily Quest)

Tales of the Ascended is a Daily quest located in Shimmersand. The quest is obtained from Dantwor Honey-Tongue <Barker> who is located in front of the Carnival ferries at (6644, 6864). He is also located in front of the Carnival ferries at (12474, 11788) in Tempest Bay.

Reward: 15x Prize Ticket; Box of Random Artifacts (contains one random artifact)
Objective: Speak with the Herald of Heroes; Participate in [Tales] Raid Rift.

The Herald of Heroes is located in Shimmersand at (7036, 6994). Speak to him and he will summon the Tales of the Ascended Raid Rift. There are approx 3-4 different tales that rotates at random each day.

Once the rift is completed, speak to the Herald of Heroes to complete the quest.

Tip/s:

• Although the adds are Level 52 – they can be painful if you aren’t in a decent solo spec – even at Level 60. Don’t pull the entire pack of mobs during each phase unless you have some self-heals.
• If you complete the rift but somebody else starts a fresh version of the rift – don’t fret! There’s two versions of the Herald of Heroes – One in the rift, and another who is standing on one of the spectator steps surrounding the rift that you can turn the quest in to.

Balloon-Stomping (Repeatable Quest)

Balloon-Stomping is a repeatable quest located in all the Carnival areas: Sanctum, Meridian, Shimmersand and Tempest Bay.

Reward: 1x Prize Ticket
Objective: Pop Balloons 0/30

Although the payout is low (1 Prize Ticket), the reason is likely because you can form a group/raid and everyone contributes to each others’ quest objective – so if one person pops a balloon, the quest gets updated for everyone in the group/raid.

Tip/s:

• Join a group/raid. Ask for an invite.
• Use an ‘interact’ macro to make completing and accepting the quest easier.
  i.e.
  interact fefer
  Replace ‘Fefer’ with the name of the Balloon Stomping NPC Questgiver.
  Note: Don’t spam the macro. Just press once – complete quest; press again – accept quest.

Ring Toss (Repeatable Quest)

Ring Toss is a repeatable quest located in all the Carnival areas: Sanctum, Meridian, Shimmersand and Tempest Bay.

Reward: 3x Prize Ticket
Objective: Toss the ring on the seacap 0/8

The goal is to use the Quest Item you receive after accepting the quest and throw the quest item on one of the two seacaps that are constantly moving in random directions within the ring.

Tip/s:

• Drag the Quest Item onto your action bar so you can use a hotkey to cast the Carnival Rings instead of manually clicking on the quest item each time.
  

Mini Mounts Racing (Repeatable Quest)

Mini Mounts Racing is a repeatable quest located in all the Carnival areas: Sanctum, Meridian, Shimmersand and Tempest Bay.

Reward: 8x Prize Ticket
Objective: Talk to [NPC] to select a team; Complete 6 laps in the race! 0/6

Speak to the NPC that gives you the quest for the Mini Mounts Racing carnival game (located right next to any Mini Mount Racecourse) and pick a team. Doesn’t matter which, although the more people jumping on a pad, the faster it goes.

Now check the colored signs and jump on the pad in front of the sign that corresponds to the Team you chose. This speeds up your horse so it finishes the 6 laps faster.

It doesn’t matter if you ‘win’ or not. Just finish the 6 laps.

Tip/s:

• Fatigue – the horse will slow down if it has more than 5 stacks of its speed buff. Click on your horse to see its stacks of the speed buff and make sure it doesn’t increase over 5 stacks. [Thanks to xanduin246 on the forums for confirming!]

Memory Match (Repeatable Quest)

Memory Match is a repeatable quest located in the Tempest Bay Carnival area.

Reward: 8x Prize Ticket
Objective: Match the Colored Orbs 0/5

Memory Match is only located in Tempest Bay’s Dock area.

The basic idea is that you click on the Lever in front of the Memory machine to activate it. The orbs will then light up in a random order. Once the sequence is complete, you are tasked with clicking on the orbs in the same order.

Successfully matching the color sequence will reward you with progression through the quest. Failing results in you having to repeat.

Tip/s:

• For some players it may be easier to say the names of the colors in your head as they light up to remember the sequence. May be easier than trying to remember the location.

Phase 2 Quests

Phase 2 starts on 5th March 2015 at 3:30PM Server Time and ends 19th March 2015 at 3:30PM Server Time.

This phase introduces Dragon Parades as well as some new quests/carnival games:

• Dragon Parades
• Wheel of Fate
• Fashion Show
• Drinking Contest
• Leaping Grass Tigers
• The Race Around The Carnival Grounds

Phase 2 Quest – Auroral Doubloons

The quest to obtain 1x Auroral Doubloon currency during Phase 2 is obtained from the same NPCs as Phase 1 in your home city:

• Sanctum – Carmichael the Clubfoot <Barker> located at (7420, 3143).
• Meridian – Bokk the Squint-Eye <Barker> located at (6193, 5178).

The quest involves completing 50 carnival games. This quest includes group contribution. There will also be another quest in the 3rd week that will include a doubloon.

Reward: 1x Auroral Doubloon (per week, 2 weeks of Phase 2) and a Carnival Celebration Crate.

Dragon Parades (Quest)

Dragon Parades begin in Phase 2 of the Carnival of the Ascended and are marked on the map as Guardian/Defiant shield icons. They relate to the Dragon Cores-type quests.

Reward: 10 Glass Beads.
Objective: Collect Combine Cores from the parades 0/40.

The Dragon Parades appear in Silverwood, Freemarch, Gloamwood, Stonefield, Scarwood Reach and Shimmersand.

Simply follow the Dragon Parades and they’ll spawn Guardian/Defiant Might Cores every now and then (usually between two close flags). Collect the cores and turn them into the respective Gathering NPCs at the Carnival Craft Stations:

• Sanctum: [ Gathering ]
• Meridian: [ Gathering ]

Wheel of Fate (Repeatable Quest)

Wheel of Fate is a repeatable quest located in the Shimmersand Carnival area at (6576, 6858) on the second Carnival ship and Tempest Bay Carnival area at (12449, 11850).

Reward: Varies, see below
Objective: Pick a ticket and hope the ball lands on that number.

This is basically a simple Roulette game. There’s 20 numbers so a 1 in 20 chance of winning. You speak to one of the NPCs (Low-Stakes, Mid-Stakes or High-Stakes) and buy a ticket, then right-click the ticket and accept the quest.

Note: You can only accept a quest from a ticket item if you aren’t already on a quest (thus you can only use one ticket per game) and only if the ball isn’t already spinning.

Payouts are as follows:

• Low Stakes – Costs 20g and rewards 3plat 70g 12s if you win.
• Mid Stakes – Costs 2p and rewards 37plat 12s if you win.
• High Stakes – Costs 10p and rewards 185plat 12s if you win.

Tip/s:

• Payouts are nearly the same at approx 18.5x cost.
• You can effectively ‘lose’ 18 times between each ‘win’ before you start getting into negative territory.

Fashion Show (Repeatable Quest)

Fashion Show is a repeatable quest located in the Shimmersand and Tempest Bay Carnival areas. They are located on the first Carnival boat.

Reward: 12x Prize Ticket
Objective: Go Backstage, Catwalk

The Fashion Show involves waiting in the backstage behind the curtains to the catwalk. Once your name appears – stand in the white AoE circle and follow the prompts.

Like with some of the other Carnival Games, you must wait for the Fashion Show to begin (it starts every few minutes).

Drinking Contest (Repeatable Quest)

Drinking Contest is a repeatable quest located in the Shimmersand and Tempest Bay Carnival areas. They are located on the second Carnival boat.

Reward: 3x Prize Ticket
Objective: Pints Drank 0/15

This Contest involves interacting with drinks on the various tables. You need to drink 15 before the timer runs out.

You receive a stack of Drunkenness every time you drink. Hit 4 stacks and you’ll be stunned. You gain one stack per bottle.

You can eat Bread to refresh the stacks; or become stunned to do the same.

Tip/s:

• Drink 3 of the thin bottles, one of the mugs (larger drink) and then a piece of bread. Rinse/Repeat.

Leaping Grass Tigers (Repeatable Quest)

Leaping Grass Tigers is a repeatable quest located in the Tempest Bay Carnival area.

Reward: 3x Prize Ticket
Objective: Win Leaping Grass Tigers

Leaping Grass Tigers is only located in Tempest Bay’s Dock area.

This is a wack-a-mole game. Simply interact with the controller in front of the game and then click on the mounds where a Grass Tiger appears. Hit them in time to progress.

Tip/s:

• Stand in the middle of the mounds so you can reach each location fast.

The Race Around The Carnival Grounds (Repeatable Quest)

The Race Around The Carnival Grounds is a repeatable quest located in the Shimmersand and Tempest Bay Carnival areas. They are located on the second Carnival boat.

Reward: 12x Prize Ticket
Objective: Choose mount; Finish Race

Basic idea behind this is to choose a mount and then finish the race. Like the Budgie Madness races, you’ll have red AoE that slows you down as well as others that will buff you. Each mount also gives you a reactive ability to speed you up.

Tip/s:

• The Crocnard and Ash Strider mounts tend to provide you with the fastest route to completing the race due to their shorter cooldowns.

Achievements

There’s a multitude of Achievements added for the Carnival under Achievements (default key “H“) -> World Events -> Carnival of the Ascended.

• Spider Knight Mount Achieves
• Other Achieves
• Expiring Achieves

Spider Knight Mount Achieves

There’s a variety of achievements that are related to obtaining a Spider Knight Mount (other than the very rare chance from the Carnival Celebration Crates).

These are:

• Come On And Jump On My Spider;
• Party Personifier;
• Celebration Through Decoration;
• Tito Approved!;
• The Color Changer.

Check out tips on obtaining these achievements and the Spider Knight Mount below in Seatin’s 2014 guide:

• Guide: Carnival Strategies & Tips (Note, the main section of relevance is the strats on the Spider Knight Mount – the rest, such as talking about Essences, are from 2014).

Other Achieves

Fortune Favors The Gold

Play all of the Carnival Games at Fortune’s Shore in Shimmersand. These are located at approx (6644, 6864) along the shore and on top of two ferries.

You must complete the following Carnival Games at least once:

• Mini Mounts Racing
• Ring Toss
• Balloon Stomp
• Fashion Show
• Drinking Contest

Mini Mounts Racing, Ring Toss and Balloon Stomp are available in Phase 1 of the Carnival. Fashion Show and Drinking Contest are only available during Phase 2 of the Carnival and are both located on the carnival ferries.

Hard Core Gamer

Play a total of 100 Carnival Games.

Hit It With A Stick!

Bust open Dragon Pinatas placed around Telara. These spawn in all Mathosia and Storm Legion zones. These appear as icons on the map that look like three multi-colored balloons. The Pinatas themselves vary based on the various Dragons.

You will need to mentor down to around their level (their level cannot be a ‘gray’ color which means you are too high level for it) in order to get full rewards.

Each Pinata has a random chance of dropping old World Event loot and Glass Beads event currency.

Everyone Loves a Parade

This achieve involves collecting 250x Parade Cores that spawn along the road that Dragon Parades path throughout various zones. These are only available during Phase 2 of the Carnival as the Dragon Parades only begin spawning during the second phase.

Will Dance For Beads

Collect 1,000 Glass Beads. Glass Beads are obtained from:

• Defeating Planar Invasions/Mobs;
• Closing Rifts;
• Completing Zone Events;
• Destroying Dragon Pinatas; and
• Completing Gathering/Crafting Dailies related to the Carnival.

If you aren’t receiving Glass Beads from any of the above – make sure you are at least Green to the mobs you are fighting by mentoring down to that level.

For the Gathering/Crafting Dailies. These are obtained from Carnival NPCs in the main cities, locationed below:

• Sanctum: [ Gathering ] – [ Crafting ]
• Meridian: [ Gathering ] – [ Crafting ]

Hope Someone Packed The Antacids

Obtained from eating all of the above Carnival Foods. These cost 1 Prize Ticket each – obtainable from the Rift Store -> World Event section.

What Do You Mean VIP Only? Don’t You Know Who I Am?

Acquire all the Carnival Titles – purchased in the Rift Store -> World Event section for 50 Glass Beads each (300 total).

Expired Achieves

Back in 2013 the Carnival of the Ascended had a special warfront “Codex: Wheel of Fate”. If you are wondering where these achieves or the warfront are, they were removed back in 2014.

The achieves relating to the Codex: Wheel of Fate Warfront are now legacy and you won’t be able to view them unless you already completed the achievements beforehand. They can be found under Achievements -> Legacy.

Hope this Carnival of the Ascended Guide has helped you out! Happy Rift 4th Anniversary!