Albion opens the Ancient Lands: portals sized to your party and a map that keeps rewiring

Sandbox Interactive has handed its latest Dev Talk over to the Ancient Lands, the region arriving with the Dragonfire update on August 31. When the studio walked through Dragonfire's PvE it left the main question open: how you get in, how you move forward, and what happens when a rival party shows up.

You get in through portals scattered across the open world, and portal size gates party size. Small ones are meant for solo players and tight groups, and they pop up with very little warning; large ones take parties of up to 20 players and are announced ahead of time. Inside, matchmaking pairs parties of similar size, so a solo player won't suddenly run into a full five-stack.

Where the portal spawned decides how much you're risking. Ones in the Outlands and red zones lead to a lethal-PvP version; ones in yellow zones lead to a non-lethal, Orange Zone version. Any entrance portal works as an exit: the party pops back out at its original spot in the open world, briefly invisible and protected.

Every party starts on its own floating island at the outer edge of the region, cut off from everyone else. Progress means killing Keeper mobs and clearing Fame objectives, which makes a Keystone appear: the piece that powers one of the island's teleporters and opens a route to a neighboring island.

Once open, a route is usable by every group, and Keystones can be moved between teleporters to redirect the layout. The minimap tells inactive, freshly activated and established connections apart. Each new path widens the map and, at the same time, makes rival groups harder to track.

Four Drake islands are flagged on the minimap and hold the best of it: treasure chests, Dragon Blood and Spirit Waystone Fragments, the currency that unlocks the Dragon Sanctuary. Once all four Drakes are down, the Fire Drake shows up at the center of the region, and it hands out complete Spirit Waystones.

For parties that win the fight but lose players doing it, the region introduces Bleedout, a knockdown state with Orange Zone and Black Zone variants. A downed player weakens over time and holds out longer while allies stay close; being revived carries a debuff that lasts for the rest of that trip.

The next Dev Talk is set aside for the Dragon Sanctuary and the fight against Azaryon, the Dragon Attacks landing across Albion, and the new Dragon Armor.