Spirit Beasts 2.1 has been released into the wild, and with it comes a new arena system and NPC trainers!

Here's how things work:

In the belly of the Firebird, Elanthia's cool new merchant aircraft, is a hidden arena called the Talondown. There, you'll have the opportunity to train with some of Elanthia's best and brightest Spirit Beast addicts, or, y'know, get brutally murdered by them. You'll also have the opportunity to win fabulous prizes. What prizes, you ask? FABULOUS. PRIZES. There are also new types of matches to complicate your already-difficult-and-frustrating Spirit Beast experience!

Blood Matches - Try your skills against your friends or NPC trainers. In the Blood Pit, your health is tied to that of your Spirit Beast, so when your pet is vanquished... well, so are you. But there's good news, everyone! Blood Matches allow you to win redsteel marks, a valuable form of currency that allows you to purchase upgrades for your Spirit Beast, along with a few other nifty items, at the cashier. Also, the trainers are kind enough to match their beasts' levels to yours. How nice.

Training Matches - Have you been tired of trying to find someone to level beasts with? Well, I'm tired of hearing about it! Now, you can head to the Talondown and fight either a friend or NPC of the same skill and beast level for the low, low price of 3000 silvers a head. The best part? Your beast gets a bonus 100 experience for every fight you win in the Training Arena. Talk about a bargain.

Listed Fights - There can be only one! Every week, the Talondown gives a mysterious prize to the winner of its listed matches. You get six fight tokens a week just by checking in, and from there on, its on you to win or lose. Listed fights can only be played against other players. Every fight that you lose costs you two tokens. Every fight that you win gains you one extra. You'll accrue points by defeating foes, and whoever's at the top of the leaderboard by the week's end wins.

Weekly Challenges - But wait, there's more. Every week, the arena sets out seven of its deadliest trainers to fight. These guys do not level-match, and they are not nice. Defeating all seven will net you a radiant bestial soulstone and a whopping purse of redsteel marks. You have the entire week to do it, so if you keep getting your face kicked in? Take a breather, come back, and prepare to wreak havoc.

As an added bonus, any fight won in the arena, against NPC or player, has the potential to net you a valuable prize!

You want more? How about heading up to the stands to WATCH your friends get pummeled? More than that!? Well, there's also a cashier, but we've gone over that. If you want more than that, you'll have to wait for Spirit Beasts 3.0: Electric Spirit Beastaloo.

Other Patch Changes:

Armaments, beast experience potions, and common and uncommon Spirit Beast enhancements are all available for purchase or winning at the Talondown Arena!

Max Speed bonus now allows your beast to attack once every 7 seconds, up from 5. This was to compensate for the overwhelming speed of high-level fights, which were becoming a hindrance to strategizing even for experienced players. Speed ranks have been adjusted accordingly.

To positively readjust the value of Speed, extremely high levels of Speed now qualify beasts for the "Blinding Speed" buff, which begins as a passive 3% boost to attack avoidance and climbs from there.

Accuracy has now been considerably improved. Base special attack damage has been reduced slightly, but it is now boosted by Accuracy. Beasts with average levels of Accuracy should see no noticeable damage change, but those with high Accuracy will see more damage out of their special attacks. Furthermore, Accuracy now provides a chance to do more--but still reduced--damage while guarding.

Experience 'til next is now shown on Spirit Beast talismans!

Auchand

"I have passed through fire and deep water, since we parted. I have forgotten much that I thought I knew, and learned again much that I had forgotten. I can see many things far off, but many things that are close at hand I cannot see."

Question about training battles...

Your beast gets a bonus 100 experience... that sounds like it should be whatever the regular experience would be, plus 100 bonus. When I manage a win, I'm just getting a straight 100. Working as intended?

Actually, I take that back... you can earn over 100xp per battle. Maybe you're getting 100 because of like-level?

---

"Bring me your suffering. The rattle roar of broken bones. Bring me the riot in your heart. Angry, wild and raw. Bring it all. I am not afraid of the dark."
- mia hollow

>Question: Am I imagining this, or did I read somewhere that there was a way to remove the beast from your talisman (more important for Uncommon and Legendary, I'd wager) so that you can get a new one??

Definitely imagining it! There's no way to remove a beast once you've bound it, but there are beast replacement potions out there like the ones for sale at Sold Souls.

#shamelessplug

Auchand

"I have passed through fire and deep water, since we parted. I have forgotten much that I thought I knew, and learned again much that I had forgotten. I can see many things far off, but many things that are close at hand I cannot see."

>Winning against the weekly challenge masters doesn't seem to get my beast any experience. Level 7 beating level 20 should gain a considerable amount.

Defeating a weekly challenge master now grants 150 experience.

Auchand

"I have passed through fire and deep water, since we parted. I have forgotten much that I thought I knew, and learned again much that I had forgotten. I can see many things far off, but many things that are close at hand I cannot see."

Had a glass of wine and tinkered with this last night.

I love it, and am having a blast. Thank you for all the hard work you've put into this, Auchand. I plan on playing a lot more with it today, as well.

I'm not very good at this, mind you, but it is fun, all the same.

---

~ Bill, Coyote.

The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.
~ Voltaire

I love it, and am having a blast. Thank you for all the hard work you've put into this, Auchand. I plan on playing a lot more with it today, as well.

Oh my god, so much this.

I'm having an absolute blast with the Arena, myself. It's so nice to be able to train at any time (even odd hours), and the plethora of long-term stuff to do makes it so worth it -- it's exceeded even my most optimistic prognostications. Also Auchand, some of your NPC trainer/critter design are freakin' hilarious and just generally awesome. You have a real knack for creative design, for sure... heh.

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"Bring me your suffering. The rattle roar of broken bones. Bring me the riot in your heart. Angry, wild and raw. Bring it all. I am not afraid of the dark."
- mia hollow

You shouldn't need the firebird, there should be an entrance in most towns.

Great, thanks. BTW, if I'm already signed in to gemstone.net, why do I need to sign in again to go the wiki that's also in the play.net domain?