New World: Khrysalis | New Magic: Shadow Magic | Make-a-Wish
New Levels | Castle Tours | Housing Item Identifier | Quest Finder
Gardening Grows | New Tournament Types | Miscellaneous Updates

New World: Khrysalis Part 1

Still confident from her victory in Azteca, Morganthe has dragged the souls of the oldest Aztecosaurs to her dark tower to assemble the Celestial Choir in her place of power. Now she will use their primal song to rewrite the Spiral in her image.

The Council of Light, that ancient assembly under the leadership of Merle Ambrose, knows it has precious little time to act. Merle gathers what is left of the council – the Emperor of MooShu, Diego the Duelmaster and Lydia Greyrose – and they come up with a desperate plan: arm the Wizards and send them into the spider’s fangs. The call to action is now!

Morganthe has created an eldritch ward to hold back her ancient enemies. But the Council of Light believes the heroic Wizards can use trickery and willpower to slip through her defenses, in their last, best hope to shatter her plans.

You will be called upon to travel to a small Spiral island, a fragment of a broken world lost to time. From the edge of this island, one can see the dark swirl of Khrysalis. You will explore Morganthe's world, searching for ways to disrupt her power, help those pinned down under the weight of her tyranny, and learn the secrets of her magic in order to have a chance of restoring the Spiral.

1. Your Wizard must be a minimum of level 85*
2. You must have completed the Azteca quest "Speaker for the Dead"
3. Speak to Merle Ambrose and he will send you to summon members of the council of light with the quest "Letters of Light"

Khrysalis Part 1 contains three Access Passes for our Crowns players, which will be priced at 1995 each.

*this requirement was dropped from level 90 to level 85 in February of 2014

Khrysalis is the culmination of Morganthe's story, and is so epic we had to split it into two separate parts. This is only the first half of the story, and the second half of Khrysalis will be available early 2014.

There is another kind of magic in the Spiral, in addition to the seven primary schools and the three Astral schools – it is an underlying, reality-defining and bending magic known as Shadow Magic. Shadow Magic can only be trained by spending Training Points, and cannot be learned as a Primary School of focus.

Shadow Magic is learned from Sofia DarkSide, a wise mouse mage located in the Eclipse Tower in Moon Cliffs. You will only be able to access her after you have completed the quest "Touching Shadow" and after you defeat her, she will teach you Shadow Magic.

Shadow Magic is so powerful and so dangerous that Bartleby and Grandmother Raven told Merle Ambrose not to delve into it, and especially not teach it to his students. Shadow magic was forbidden for it touches the true essence of the Spiral. This is the forbidden knowledge that Morganthe has so long coveted.

Shadow Magic enhances the spells you cast while the Shadow Magic spell is in effect. It is unstable and difficult to control. Players will need to learn how to best manage Shadow Magic and learn how to harness its very powerful benefits.

There are 3 different Shadow Self spells. You will be awarded one of them, based on your school. The other 2 can be learned by spending Training Points at Sofia DarkSide.

Ah but there's so much more...

Shadow Pips
Shadow Magic cannot be cast with regular or power pips, but must be cast with special new Shadow Pips. You will only have a chance of receiving Shadow pips if you have trained Shadow Magic. You will be able to view the effects of a current Shadow Magic spell by placing your mouse over the Shadow Pip on the 2d Combat display.

Backlash
All Shadow Spells run the risk of Backlash Damage. When a player casts a Shadow Damage spell, a Shadow Aura appears. That Shadow Aura will change based on the player's actions. The angrier looking the Shadow Aura, the stronger the Backlash will be once the Shadow Magic spell expires. Damage caused by Backlash ignores all resistances, shields and modifiers!

PvP
Shadow Magic can be used in all PvP, young Wizards, so this should make things very interesting....

Earlier this year, KingsIsle Entertainment was honored to help Make-a-Wish in their ongoing mission to grant the wishes of children. Last week we received a phone call from Make-a-Wish, and we jumped at the chance to make another child’s wish come true. Allan is an avid Wizard101 player with a level 92 Fire Wizard who is well on the way to learning Shadow Magic. His wish was to visit KingsIsle in Austin to meet the team that makes his favorite game, and to see how the magic happens in our studio.

Allan’s morning started with an introduction to the entire KingsIsle team, followed by a very special session with our Sound department. Here he listened as several of our voice actors auditioned for a part, and Allan picked the voice he wanted to portray what would be a very special surprise character.

Then Allan was shown how our concept artists paint and draw the very beginnings of a character, and how that character is then modelled and animated by our amazing art team. He also spent a great deal of time with our wonderful writers and designers talking about quests, story and his adventures and challenges with playing the game.

After lunch, Allan and his family signed some very official documents before they were shown a sneak peek of what’s to come to Wizard101. They had a chance to see some super secret stuff that even some of our staff haven’t seen!

All the while Allan and his family were talking to our staff and touring our studio, our designers, programmers, sound folks and production team were busy bringing together what would be a very special reveal for our visitors, and for all our players!

As the day came to a close, we had one last surprise for Allan. We conjured some very powerful magic, and ran his character through a new quest in Khrysalis before it was available in the live game. As his Wizard rounded the corner he encountered himself -- Allan saw his own character, in his full outfit and accompanied by his favorite pet, standing in the game! Allan was truly amazed! When he interacted with that character, the voice Allan had chosen from the auditions boomed loudly in the conference room, much to everyone’s delight.

Now you can see this quest for yourself! If you’ve completed the quest “Secret Heart” in Khrysalis, talk to Zaltanna the MirrorMask to obtain this NEW quest “Message in a Bottle”. We think you’ll be very happy with the reward and say hi to Allan GhostDust and his pet Lord Snoopie while you’re there.

It was such an honor to be able to make this happen for Allan and his family. Knowing that what we do can make such a difference in the life of a child drives our ongoing commitment to create fun games for the whole family.

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Addendum
It’s never easy to share sad news, but we wanted to let you all know that Allen Guzman, the young man we hosted on December 6th 2013 as part of Make-a-Wish, passed away January 2nd 2014.

We received the email below from Allen’s brother, Raul:

We can't thank you enough for making Allan's wish come true. He had an amazing day at your studios and it's all he ever talked about when we got home. Your kindness has allowed my family and I to visit Allan everyday in Wizard101. As I said we can't thank you enough for allowing him to visit.
- Guzman Family

It’s rewarding and humbling to know that their visit to our studio brought Allan joy and his family some measure of comfort in extraordinarily difficult times.

Increased Levels

Higher Wizard Level!
With the addition of the first half of Khrysalis, Wizards can now reach the maximum of level 95!*

A Training Point will be awarded at level 95 as usual, plus there will be bonus Training Points available through quests in Khrysalis.

With increased levels also comes increased Gold!
For characters under level 80 the maximum gold is 300 000
For characters level 80-90 the maximum gold is 350 000
For characters Level 91+ the maximum gold is 375 000

And now - something that hasn't happened since Dragonspyre, Mana will begin increasing again. Level 91 will bump Mana up to a base level of 130, then begin increasing by 2 for each level thereafter.

There's even a new Gardening level - read more below in the Gardening Updates

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*Please remember, when you were at the previous level maximum of 90 no experience was rewarded for duels and quests completed once you reached level 90. When a player reaches the maximum level, their experience bar disappears, indicating they are not gaining experience from their duels or quests. No experience is rewarded to those who are at the maximum level, which means that everyone who was level 90 before we raised the level cap will be level 90 to start. Now that we have raised the level cap, you can once again start earning new experience points from your adventures.

Myrella WindSpar has set up shop in the Wizard City Commons to allow young Wizards to open their homes up so that other players can visit and rate Castles without having to teleport to someone in the house!



Visiting Castles
When you speak to Myrella WindSpar in her Wizard City Commons shop, she will give you three options:

1. Visit Castle
   If you wish to Visit a Castle, you can choose from Castles that were added in the last 24 hours, a random Castle, the Castle of a friend or a Top Rated Castle.
2. 
   Add Castle
   If you wish to put your own Castle up to be toured, you will be asked to categorize your Castle as Decorated, Magical, Crazy or a Maze. By adding your Castle to Castle Tours you agree that for the next 30 60 days other players may visit your Castle whether you are present or not. This means that players can visit your house at any time. If you no longer wish to open your house to tours, you can remove it from Castle Tours.
3. 
   Remove Castle
   If you've placed your Castle on the Castle Tours, you may remove it at any time by selecting Remove Castle from the main Castle Tours menu.

Rating Castles
When you visit a Castle, you can rate it! You may only rate a Castle by selecting "New Today" or "Random". You can rate Castles from one to four stars; a Good Castle, a Great Castle, a Fantastic Castle or a Spectacular Castle.

Rated Castles appear on the Leaderboards for up to 30 days and you can visit the top rated Castles at any time.

Find a decoration inappropriate? You can report a house from the very small button on the Friends Panel.

Housing Item Identifier

Have you ever been to a friend's Castle and wondered what that amazing table was called or whether that awesome chair was something they crafted? Well wonder no more - the Housing Item Identifier is here!

When you are in someone else's house, you will now see this Item Identifier button on the lower right of your in-game screen.

When you are in Item Identify mode, simply place your mouse cursor over an item in a friend's house and you will see a label appear telling you the name of the item! Icons will indicate whether the item is Crafted, purchased with Crowns or earned with Arena Tickets.



To exit Item Identify mode, simply click the Item Identifier button again.

Quest Finder

Having trouble finding what quest you need to do next? Looking for something new to do? Now you can simply press a button and find a nearby quest!

Quest Finder is on by default and can be disabled through the Options Panel (press Esc to access your Game Options).

When you press the Quest Finder Button in your Journal (it's on the last page of your quests) The Quest Helper arrow will now point to the nearest available quest. It will start with the current zone you are in, and then expand to the current world you are in. If it doesn't find any quests in that world, you will need to move to another world and press Quest Finder again.

When you use Quest Finder, a window will appear telling you where to go and who to talk to, and the Quest Helper arrow will now point to that location.

Grow your Gardening!

Higher Gardening Rank!
New worlds unleash new plants (and new pests) on the Spiral!

Khrysalis has a new Gardening Trainer and there are new Gardening Ranks, new Plants and new Spells to be learned! Truly dedicated Gardeners who are currently Gardening level 15, can now obtain the rank of Verdant Gardener!

You'll first encounter Barley during the quest "Uneasy Allies" when you can access the zone Last Wood, but you will return to him in Bastion to finally unlock what he has to offer.

Look for new Gardening spells like Itsy Bitsy Spider, Monsoon, Ant Lion and more. More Gardening Updates

1. When an elder plant in “Second Spring" is harvested, the harvest now has a confirmation.

New Tournament Types

  We've heard some really amazing suggestions from our Player vs Player community about the different types of Tournaments you'd like to see, so we're introducing different Tournament Types.

Let's start with the most requested:
Classic Tournaments:

1. No pets
2. No treasure cards
3. No amulets of any kind

And now for some other interesting Tournament types:

Quick Match: 10 minute match Increased damage each round Increased armor piercing

School Perk Tournaments: Bonus to spells of a certain school.

The following minor updates have been made to the game:

Characters
1. Eloise MerryWeather has dropped the second "MerryWeather" title in Dragonspyre
2. Creatures wandering the worlds of Avalon and Azteca have weakened from all their travels and defeats, and now should present less of a challenge
3. Life Henchmen should pay a little more attention to healing players who are defeated

Locations
4. Cave of Bad Taste in Tierra de Brea will now properly function as a dungeon
5. Players can no longer switch realms when they are inside the Fantastic Fish Bowl decoration

Items
6. Azteca Furniture Set #1 has had its description corrected
7. New level 95 Henchmen have been added, and some Henchmen prices have been reduced

Interaction
8. Players can once again click the 'Hidden to Friends' icon to turn off being hidden to friends.
9. Look for the new but small "Send Away All" button on the friends panel while you're in your home. It will do exactly what you think it will, and send all visitors away from your home. This will also send away those who may be there as part of a Castle Tour, if you have opened your home to those tours.
10. Players can no longer access their bank when they are at another player's house (either visiting or for Castle Tours)

Fun Stuff
11. Have you ever healed for a million health points? There's a badge for that!

Pets
12. Some pets were replacing their spells as they leveled up, instead of adding spells. The following pets will now receive multiple spells as they level up:
    1. Babydactyl (from the Prehistoric Bundle Card)
    2. Stegosaurus (from the Dino Bundle Card)
    3. Velociraptor (from the Skyvern's Hoard Pack)
    4. Therizinosaurus (from the Crown Shop)
    5. Leaf Foot (from the Shaman’s Lore Pack)
    6. Frilled Lizard (from the Crown Shop)
    7. Penumbra Drake (from the Nightmare Pack)
    8. Harpy (from a boss in Aquila)

After a release to the live game, there are often a few matters that need to be addressed. Below are some of the updates that have been addressed since the initial release of Khrysalis.

1. The Spiral door is now marked on the Bastion Map
2. The Fairy Circle can once again be interacted with during the "Death of the Party" quest
3. The creatures in the Avalon Tower Prison have moved away from the doorway a little
4. Players can no longer pass through the shortcut in the Black Palace during the quest "Do I Look Fat in This?"
5. Poseidon and Zeus will now always appear when you duel Hades, as intended
6. Gold & Experience have been adjusted for the quest "You Shouldn't Have" in Khrysalis
7. Senator Nellek has graciously agreed to start talking to Wizards again at the end of the dual for the quest "Helping Claw" in Celestia
8. Nordilund has returned to to normal
9. Some creatures that were evading being clicked on in a duel, can once again be targeted by clicking on the creature, not just the nameplate
10. The Storm version of the King Artorious spell has had its blades corrected
11. The quest "Water Everywhere" now displays correctly in the Quest Journal, Quest Helper and Quest Finder
12. Players can no longer obtain a temporary dragonfly mount through button mashing and clear exploitation of a flaw in the Amber Estate. Getting something you shouldn’t is always an exploit. We will be fixing this loophole, and any ill-gotten gains will be removed from accounts soon. We haven’t determined whether or not sanctions will be levied on the accounts that clearly exploited this obvious flaw.

And a few things we're still working on...

1. Players may still experience an error message when trying to Stitch or Unstitch. This only occurs when you try to Stitch or Unstitch after switching to a different character on your account. We are working on this, but in the meantime, if you encounter this error, you may need to just restart Wizard101 and stitch your new outfit when you start the game back up again
2. Some of the new Classic tournaments are displaying as 1v1 instead of 3v3.