Albion's Ancient Lands are an extraction mode: portals that match party size, teleporters you have to earn

The Ancient Lands already got their own story here, covering the party-size portals and the map that rearranges itself. What was missing is the format, and it's what defines the zone: when Albion Online ships Dragonfire on August 31, the new region will run as a PvPvE extraction mode.

Per the team's Dev Talk, small portals show up with almost no warning and are meant for solo players and small parties; big ones are announced ahead of time and take up to 20 players. Size isn't cosmetic: each portal matches you against groups of the same scale, so going in alone doesn't mean running into a twenty-man ball.

Inside, the floating islands connect through teleporters you have to switch on. Killing Keeper mobs, finishing island quests and racking up Fame yields Keystones, and each Keystone opens the way to the next island for everyone already in there. The deeper you push, the harder the fight and the fatter the loot.

Deepest in sit the Drake islands: clear out the Ashborn and a Fire Drake spawns as the final boss, the biggest payout the zone offers. Above that sits Azaryon, the dragon that drops the Drake Egg you raise into a mount. Sandbox Interactive still hasn't said what you lose on death or how you get out with the loot.