Season One — Ceramic Madness

Hi! Tony here!

Season 1 is already underway — so now is the perfect time to take a closer look at its mechanics. We’ve brought together everything you need to know in one post:

• 🏙️ Arx and five seasonal locations — a new city and five locations for characters at levels 30-55.
• 📜 Season quests and the Season Path: a storyline, side quests, and a reward chain spanning 4 chapters.
• 👹 Mini-bosses and guardians: Champions, location guardians, and the Servant of the Kiln await in basements and across the locations.
• 🏛️ The updated Temple of Darkness and the new Kiln of Souls: a level 50 group dungeon featuring the Matron of Firing and the Great Potter.
• ⚒️ Seasonal crafting: seasonal item properties and streamlined two-stage smelting.

New Mechanics

🏙️ Arx and Seasonal Locations

The first season is set around the city of Arx and five new locations based on World 2’s core balance.

• Season dates: August 26 – November 29, 2026.
• Minimum entry level: 30.
• Seasonal progression range: 30-55.
• Progression is accelerated by a seasonal experience and reward multiplier.
• Seasonal locations: Fetid Slums, Sand Valley, Poppy Fields, White Clay Quarry, Sunken Villas.
• All five locations are available right away, while the story campaign guides you through them one by one.

⚒️ The Arx Forge: Crafting, Seasonal Properties, and Streamlined Smelting

Every seasonal item can drop with an additional seasonal property. You can now maximize it on a single crafting page in two simple stages.

How a Seasonal Property Appears

• The chance for an item to gain an additional property is 5%.
• A regular seasonal property is created at 100% power right away.
• A property can drop as Ancient right away (at maximum power, 150%).

Stage 1 — Basic Smelting

• One attempt costs 3 units of White Clay, multiplied by item type (Armor ×1, Jewelry ×2, Weapon ×4) and item tier.
• Each attempt rerolls the item’s regular properties (those that are neither seasonal nor Ancient) and gradually raises their minimum value — from 0.1% after the first attempt to a guaranteed 100% after 1000 attempts.
• A Phoenix Tear lets you choose between the old and new sets of properties.

Stage 2 — Ancient Smelting

• This stage unlocks when all of the item’s properties have reached 100%, but at least one has not yet reached the 150% maximum.
• One action = a guaranteed +1% power increase for one property — with no random failures.
• The base cost of an action is 50 Hardened Souls, multiplied by item type (Armor ×1, Jewelry ×2, Weapon ×4) and item tier.
• You can select the exact property you want (a targeted upgrade) — in that case, the cost increases further based on the number of the item’s other magical properties.
• Upon reaching 150%, the property gains Ancient status and is no longer included in upgrades.

🛠️ Master Level and Dismantling Items

• Seasonal smelting (both stages) does not check your Master level — you can smelt any item, including an Epic level 6 item or a Legendary level 8 item, even if you have not yet leveled up the appropriate Master.
• Unlike smelting, dismantling items for materials requires and checks your Master level — the Estate is shared with the main world.
• Dismantling Epic level 5-6 items requires Master level 2 for the corresponding item type.
• Dismantling Legendary items requires Master level 3 for the corresponding item type.

If you have not yet reached the required Master level, you can simply sell the item at the Market Stall to receive seasonal currency.

✨ Special Location Events

In the first season, special events with waves of enemies and increased rewards appear across the locations. They provide an extra incentive to explore the seasonal world and hunt for seasonal crafting resources.

Cursed Chest

• The event begins when you activate a Cursed Chest.
• The chest spawns several waves of mobs that must be defeated one after another.
• Successfully completing the event grants the player 2 times the reward for defeating a regular Champion.

Soul Vessel

• The event begins when you activate a Soul Vessel.
• The vessel spawns waves of mobs that must be defeated.
• Farming the event can yield seasonal crafting resources, including materials for seasonal smelting.
• An additional event reward is the Ceramic Goblin.

Ceramic Goblin

• The Ceramic Goblin is a special seasonal event/enemy with an increased reward.
• Defeating it grants the player loot comparable to the reward for defeating a boss or location guardian.
• The goblin also provides crystals for Ancient Smelting.

👹 Bosses, Guardians, and Champions

In addition to regular monsters, stronger enemies can be found throughout the seasonal locations — just as players are used to.

• Champions are stronger monsters with increased Champion rewards and can be encountered across the seasonal locations.
• Story Champions are special Champions that must be defeated to advance the storyline. They do not grant Champion rewards! Only the quest reward.
• A location guardian is a unique mini-boss found in every seasonal location, starting with the very first one.
• Ideal Creation is a world boss that appears in the final seasonal location alongside regular world bosses. Its key feature is that it grants no guild reward — instead, every battle participant who earns a reward receives Hardened Souls for Ancient Smelting.

🏛️ Dungeons: the Updated Temple of Darkness and the New Kiln of Souls

The Nameless Kiln — Temple of Darkness (unlocks at level 35)

• Available through a seasonal quest from level 35.
• The Servant of Darkness’s level and the damage dealt by the dungeon’s area-of-effect abilities have been reduced to make the dungeon manageable at the season’s progression pace.

The Kiln of Souls — Group Dungeon (level 50)

• Unlocks through a quest at level 50, together with weekly grind quests.
• Regular monsters: level 55, combat stats ×3, health ×5.
• Bosses: level 65, combat stats ×3.5, health ×30.
• The final story boss is the Great Potter.

📜 Storyline and the Season Path

The storyline is available from the first day of the season, while the Season Path guides you through every seasonal activity, chapter by chapter.

Storyline

• A full storyline guides your character all the way to level 50 — it tells the story of the world of Arx and its heroes, and concludes in full upon reaching that level.
• Alongside the story, side quests in the tavern and daily quests are also available — a convenient way to farm experience and resources on your way to level 50.
• After level 50, various daily quests become available to the hero for a dangerous location and the group dungeon, providing a convenient way to earn resources.

Season Path

The Season Path consists of 4 chapters spanning the entire season, from the first day to the finale. The quests in all chapters are available and progress in parallel from the very beginning, but rewards must be claimed in sequence — first the reward from the previous chapter, and then the next one unlocks.

The farther the hero advances along the Path, the more demanding the quests become and the more valuable their rewards.

• Chapter 1. The Guardians of Arx call on anyone willing to answer... The city needs heroes to fight back against the ceramic creatures!
• Chapter 2. The Potter’s grip on the world is tightening, and automatons and dangers are multiplying. Free the imprisoned souls!
• Chapter 3. Ceramic automatons are tightening their grip on the city of Arx, but hope is not lost! Prepare yourself—the trials ahead will be harder than ever.
• Chapter 4. The Great Potter has awakened. Only the strongest heroes can overcome these trials and stop the ancient ceramic madness before it is too late!

🎭 Seasonal Skins and Mounts

The season brings two collections of seasonal skins and five new mounts.

• “Ceramic Madness” Rare skin collection — 12 skins showing what the classes would look like if they became part of Arx’s automaton world.

• Epic skin collection — another 12 god-themed skins inspired by Greek mythology; these are also part of the season and are unlocked with seasonal fragments.

Sources of Seasonal Fragments

• Scorched Chest — the main source of group fragments for seasonal skins and universal collection fragments.
• Final Season Path chapter — completing the fourth chapter grants the player 25 universal seasonal collection fragments.

Seasonal Mounts

The season features 5 mounts: one Rare, two Epic, and two Legendary. These include classic horses and ceramic automaton mechanisms.

Sources of Seasonal Mounts

• Ceramic Horse (Rare) — a guaranteed reward for completing the fourth Season Path chapter;
  • it can also drop from a Scorched Chest.
• Arx Runner (Epic) — can drop from a Scorched Chest.
• Sand Nomad (Epic) — has a chance to drop from a Scorched Chest.
• Shard of Styx (Legendary) — can drop from a Scorched Chest.
• Runemane (Legendary) — has a chance to drop from a Scorched Chest.

Which Mechanics Are Available During the Season

Seasonal Chest Contents