Albion Online’s Ancient Lands Will Open on August 31 With Portals and Drake Hunts
The new region will match parties by size, let players reroute island connections with Keystones, and add a Bleedout state for contested fights.
Albion Online will send players into the Ancient Lands on August 31, when the Dragonfire update launches. The new region will combine PvE objectives, shifting travel routes, and lethal or non-lethal PvP depending on where players find an entry portal.
Sandbox Interactive has explained how the area works in an official Dev Talk featuring Co-Creative Director Michael Schwahn, Game Designer Marco Nogielsky, and Environment Artist Johannes Geier. The developer’s Dragonfire update page also identifies the Ancient Lands as one of the update’s main additions.
Portal size will decide who enters the Ancient Lands
Portals to the Ancient Lands will appear throughout Albion’s open world, with their size determining the kind of party they can accommodate. Small portals are intended for solo players and smaller groups, and they can appear with very little warning. Large portals will support parties of up to 20 players, but their arrival will be announced ahead of time to create organized large-group PvP encounters.
Parties will also be matched with groups of a similar size within each portal category. A solo player will not suddenly be placed against a full five-player party simply because both groups entered the same type of portal.
The destination’s PvP rules depend on the world zone where the entrance appears:
- Portals found in the Outlands and Red Zones lead to a lethal version of the Ancient Lands.
- Portals in Yellow Zones lead to a non-lethal Orange Zone version.
Keystones will reshape the routes between islands
Every party begins on its own floating island around the outer edge of the region, separated from other groups at the start. Progress depends on defeating Keeper mobs and completing the Fame objectives on the island.
Finishing an island quest produces a Keystone. Players can place it at one of the island’s teleporters to activate a route toward a neighboring island. Once active, that connection becomes available to every group in the area, and the Keystone can be moved to another teleporter when a party wants to redirect its route.
The minimap will show whether connections are inactive, newly opened, or already established. Opening more routes creates new ways to travel, but it also gives rival groups more chances to cross paths with one another. Keeping track of the network—and deciding which routes to activate—will be part of every expedition.
Players can extract their loot through any entrance portal. After leaving, the party returns to its original entry point in the open world with temporary protection and invisibility.
Four Drake islands lead to the Fire Drake
Four Drake islands will be marked on the minimap. Each one contains high-end rewards for the Ancient Lands, including Treasure Chests, Dragon Blood, and Spirit Waystone Fragments. The fragments help unlock access to the Dragon Sanctuary.
Defeating all four Drakes causes the Fire Drake to appear in the center of the region. It protects the Ancient Lands’ largest reward, and defeating it can grant complete Spirit Waystones. Since other parties can interfere, groups will have to hold key territory, push back rivals, and reach objectives before competitors can take control.
Bleedout gives defeated players a chance to recover
Group fights can leave some players down even when their party wins the encounter. To give those groups time to recover, the Ancient Lands will introduce a new Bleedout knockdown state.
- The system will appear in both the Orange Zone and Black Zone versions of the region.
- Downed players will weaken over time, though staying near their party will let them hold out longer.
- Allies can revive them, but revived players will receive a debuff that lasts for the rest of their time in the Ancient Lands.
The system should give winning groups a way to regroup after a difficult battle without removing the cost of repeated defeats.
A realm built from shattered islands and Keeper ruins
The Ancient Lands are a hidden realm saturated with magic, made up of shattered floating islands that once belonged to the ancient Keepers and their Dragons. Concentrated magic flows through the environment, while huge gates, ritual statues, and old channeling structures point to the civilization that once occupied the region.
At the center stands a grand temple built to honor and control the Dragons. The Keepers eventually used powerful rituals to put the creatures to sleep, leaving behind a landscape that combines flower-covered meadows with dangerous wilderness.
The region will include swamps filled with lakes and waterfalls, woodlands dominated by enormous trees, and areas surrounded by the remains of giant creatures. Its visual design is closely tied to the same mechanics that govern travel and conflict, giving the Ancient Lands a distinct identity within Albion Online.
The next Dev Talk will cover the Dragon Sanctuary and the battle against Azaryon, along with Dragon Attacks across Albion, the new Dragon Armor, and other rewards arriving with Dragonfire.
Will the Ancient Lands become your next destination, or do the shifting routes sound too dangerous? Share your thoughts in the comments, and follow us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram.
Albion Online
Developed by Sandbox Interactive
Albion Online is a free-to-play sandbox MMORPG set in a medieval fantasy world inspired by Arthurian legends. The game uses a classless system where a player's equipped gear determines their abilities and playstyle. Items span eight tiers and are entirely player-crafted, forming a fully player-driven economy. The open world features zones with varying levels of PvP risk, from safe areas to full-loot zones where defeated players lose their equipment. Players can join guilds of up to 300 members to fight over territories and castles in large-scale battles. The game also offers PvE combat and various gathering and crafting activities.
- Genre Role-playing (RPG)
- Platforms Xbox Series X|S, Linux, Android, PC (Microsoft Windows), iOS, Mac
- Perspective Bird view / Isometric
- Modes Multiplayer, Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO)
- Release July 17, 2017
- Publisher Sandbox Interactive
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