About Rappelz

Rappelz
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Developer(s): nFlavor
Publisher(s): Gala-Net., Inc
License: Freeware
Release date(s): November 03, 2006
Genre(s): MMORPG
Mode(s): MMO
Rating(s): None
Platform(s): Windows
Media Client - 1.67 GB
Input: Keyboard, Mouse

Rappelz (from Old French "rapeler": to summon) is a free MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) made by Gala-Net Inc, the distributors of Flyff, Corum Online, Space Cowboy Online, Shot Online and UpShift StrikeRacer. It is based in a fantasy world dominated by three races of separate alignments: The Deva, guardians of light, the Asura, servants of the dark, and the Gaia, the protectors of nature. The game can be compared to games such as Lineage II.

Like Gala-Net., Inc's other MMO titles, Rappelz is free of subscription charges; revenue is generated through the sale of special items via the "Cash Shop". Purchasing Cash Shop items is not compulsory, though the FAQ404 error implies that they may offer the player a distinct advantage in-game, however the majority of players do not use the service.

History

The Open Beta version of Rappelz launched on October 2, 2006,with two separate servers available: "Tortus" , the normal PvE server, and "Pantera", the more PvP/PK-oriented server. Those who had previously downloaded the Closed Beta version of Rappelz were not required to re-download the Rappelz client to play in Open Beta; however, extensive automatic patching was done by the client before Closed Beta players could enter Open Beta. Closed Beta ended on September 26, 2006. Closed-beta characters were deleted at the beginning of Open Beta; however, characters created during Open Beta were not deleted prior to the game's release. Open Beta ended with the official release of the game on November 3, 2006, entitled epic 3, the previous being epic 1 and epic 2: the epic of the absolute creature.
 
There are currently seven servers in service namely, "Bahamut", "Tortus", "Fenrir", "Naga",and "Pantera (PVP)." and the newest server, "Unicorn (PVE)." Recently four servers were merged into two, "Salamander" and "Yeti" were merged into "Naga"; "Lydian" and "Tanda" became "Fenrir". 


The Story


According to the game's backstory available on gpotato's site, the oldest race is the Gaia, and to assist them, the gods of Creation and Extinction brought two more races into the world. They were the Deva who represented the Light and the Asura who represented the Darkness. With this, there was a period of peace and stability in the world.

As the ages passed by, there was one among the Gaia who called herself "The Witch". Over time, she grew in tremendous power and with a ruthless ambition, rallied the people of Gaia to rebel against the world.

Not all the people of Gaia heeded this call however and the world was thrown into chaos. It was only through the combined efforts of the three races of Deva, Asura and Gaia that "The Witch" was finally captured and burnt alive. It was a victorious outcome of a unity between the three races.

Now at the present time, the three races continue to co-exist with each other in the world of Rappelz but dark rumors have surfaced about the second coming of "The Witch" and the return of her terrible forces...

Races

Each of the three races in Rappelz has three classes: a melee-oriented class, a magic-oriented class, and a "summoner" class whose ablities center around their pets.[2] Similar to Ragnarok Online, the character's class is not chosen at the beginning of play: instead, characters are of a generic "all-rounder" class until level 10, whereupon the player can choose how to specialize. Players are also free to select their character's gender at creation.

Players are free to adventure anywhere in the game world, regardless of their character's race.

Deva
The Deva Race


The Deva are a light-based race. They are defense-oriented, focusing on the powers of healing and buffing.

* Guide - The Guide is the starting class for the Deva. The skills Smite and Minor Healing are learned by this class
o Holy Warrior - The Holy Warrior is similar to a Paladin. It is a warrior which benefits from additional healing capabilities and defensive buffs. Holy Warriors are the best tanks in the game due to their natural high defense and health. Even though it is less offense based than many other classes and so may deal less damage, they have many threat provoking skills (notably, "Provoke") which cause monsters to attack them instead of other party members.
  + Soldier - The Soldier is the more offense-based second job class for Holy Warriors. They are considered one of the game's most powerful classes because of their power in both offense and defense.
  + Knight - The Knight is the pure tanking second job class. They are built solely for defensive ability and threat gathering.
o Cleric - The Cleric is the main healer/buffer of Rappelz, and can either support parties or solo. The Cleric has very powerful buffs that raises party member's abilities and powerful healing spells. That role can sometimes be replaced by the Kahuna class also has some powerful buffs and a healing spell.
  + Priest - The Priest is a defensive caster second class which focuses on buffs and healing. They have skills which can buff or heal their entire party.
  + Bishop - The Bishop is a more offensive caster which has many attack spells, buffs and debuffs.
o Breeder - The Breeder is Deva's summoner. Breeders have more defense orientated buffs and focus on raising and healing their creatures; they have limited light based damage skills also.
  + Master Breeder - The second job class of breeders mainly extends their first job skills further. Currently in the game they are called Soul Breeders, due to problems with the Epic 4 update.

Asura
The Asura Race


The Asura are the dark race of Rappelz, concentrating more on offense - fast attacks and evasion. They have lower health than the other two races.

* Stepper - The Stepper is the starting class for the Asura. The basic skills Charge Swing and Deep Evasion is learned by this class.
o Strider - The Strider is an assassin-like class that uses high evasion and attack power. They can specialize in blades (swords or dirks) or crossbow.
  + Assassin - The Assassin specializes in twin dirks or swords, and have a large range of offensive melee skills and stealth skills to hide from their enemies.
  + Shadow Hunter - The Shadow Hunter is the second job class of Striders which specializes in crossbows. They have many ranged skills and debuffing abilities.
o Dark Magician - The Dark Magician uses spells that drain and weaken the enemy. They have many offensive spells and debuffs.
  + Wizard - The Wizard is the second job class of Dark Magicians which concentrates on high damage spells. In game they are currently called Chaos Mages, due to problems with the Epic 4 update.
  + Warlock - The Warlock is the second job class which concentrates more on debuffs and curse magic. This makes them more party-orientated because they have less attack power on their own than Wizards.
o Sorcerer - The Sorcerer is an offense based pet class with many skills to increase the offensive power of their pets, but only a limited ability to heal them.
  + Battle Sorcerer - The Battle Sorcerer is an extension of the sorcerer. They have huge offensive potential in both melee and magic, and even more offensive buffs for their pets.

Gaia
The Gaia Race


The Gaia are a neutral human race who generally have mix of defensive and offensive spells. Their skills revolve around the manipulating the forces of nature.

* Rogue - The Rogue is the starting class for Gaia.
o Fighter - Fighters generally do heavy amounts of damage at slower rates than the Asura Strider but have better defense and more health. However, they have less defensive power and health than Holy Warriors. They generally specialise in either a two handed melee weapon (though the ability to wield dual axes in Epic 4 has also been popular) or bows.
  + Warrior - The Warrior is the melee based second job class for Fighters. They have many offensive skills to increase their damage. They are currently called Champions in the game due to an error in the Epic 4 update.
  + Archer - Archers are the Fighters who choose to specialize in bows. They have many ranged offensive attacks and can set traps for their enemies.
o Kahuna - The Kahuna is somewhat of a hybrid between a fighter and a true caster. Their magical attack spells are mediocre when compared to a Dark Magician's and must rely on melee for most damage. However, they also have buffs and a heal over time skill which makes them also similar to a cleric.
  + Battle Kahuna - The Battle Kahuna is the more melee and offensive based of the Kahuna's second jobs. They focus more on personal buffs and combat.
  + Druid - The Druid is the support class second job for Kahunas. They have more healing spells and higher level buffs.
o SpellSinger - The SpellSinger is the Gaia pet class. It lies between the Breeder and the Sorcerer - it has skills to boost both the defense and offense of its pet, but not to the levels of those two classes. It is the only class in the game which lacks a self healing ability but it can heal its pet.
  + SpiritSinger - The SpiritSinger furthers the SpellSinger's abilities.

Game features

Action Icons

Generally most MMO's have generic actions built into the mouse clicks, for example attacking and picking up loot. Rappelz however optionally provides the use of icons for those actions; thus allowing them to be assigned to a hotkey. Some other actions may also be used through the use of icons (those available in the control window) such as toggling PVP. Emotes, traditionally used through the chat window via commands using the syntax /command, are optionally available through hotkey usage.

Force Chips, Soul Chips and Luna Chips

Chips are items that players can use to significantly affect a battle by increasing the amount of damage the target takes for a limited amount of time. They come in tree types, force chips, soul chips and Luna chips with different ranks which allow different levels of users to use chips while not overpowering them. Force chips increase physical damage (melee and ranged for example) while soul chips increase the amount of magical damage. (Healing is considered using Magical Damage and thus soul chips would improve healing.) They can be obtained by using rupees (in-game currency) or exchange of laks from NPC's.  However, it is much more cost effective to obtain force or soul chips via Laks.  A Lak is the spirit from monsters and can be obtained by killing monsters while wearing the appropriate necklace.

Equipment Upgrades

Equipment in the game have their own level and can sometimes level up by means of upgrading. Items that are able to do this display a section at the bottom of their status window showing the upgraded status affects, allowing players to know ahead of time the quality of the equipment. By visiting a blacksmith, players are able to upgrade their currently equipped (and upgradeable) equipment for a fee. Thus a weak weapon or armour can be formed into a stronger item without having to sell it and buy a brand new one. The benefit to this process is when you can upgrade your current item to a purchasable item at a weapons trader, thereby saving money lost when selling and buying.

Item Combinations

Rappelz has a system of item combining and reducing that incorporates both items and skills to make it work, usually involving an upgrade cube and the upgradeable item.


Pet System

Pets can be used by all races and classes: the only requirement being two skills, Summon Creature and Creature Control, which are available early in the game. The basic classes (Rogue, Guide and Stepper) and fighter classes have little emphasis on creatures through the availability of creature affecting skills while the others, especially summoner classes (Breeder, Spell Singer and Sorcerer) can affect creatures more greatly.

Pets are attained by taming a pet while having the appropriate card for that pet in the player's inventory. The three most basic pet cards can be bought in any town, while other cards are only found from defeated monsters. Once tamed, pets can be summoned and banished at will by their owners.

Upon reaching a significantly high level, pets can "evolve" to a different type. A pet evolves twice during its lifetime. Additionally, pets can learn skills at higher levels that allow them to be used as equipment, augmenting their owner's power. Overbreeding grants pets more job points and stats than non-overbred pets. Overbreeding begins after a pet can evolve but not allowing the city tamer to evolve it.

Pets may be evolved at levels 50 and 100 but over-breeding must be performed at levels 60 (level:intermediate) and 115 (level:advanced).

With the release of Epic 7 in fall of 2010, pets may be "Staged" or combined into stronger pets with better stats, new skill, and durability.
  
Geography

The world of Rappelz consists of a large island, which is the mainland, and a smaller one, which is called Trainee's Island. The mainland is divided into several areas, such as Crystal Valley, Lizardman Habitat, Pyre Site and Forgotten Portal. These areas harbour monsters of generally similar levels, with few exceptions, like bosses. There are also dungeons to be found, in which monsters are stronger, and experience and job point rewards are higher.

By default, any area is "player-kill area". This means that battle can be held, both between player characters and monsters (mobs), and player characters amongst each other (PK/PvP or dueling). Some small areas exist which are "non-player-kill areas". These are the towns Katan, Horizon, Laksy and Rondo. It is also around the teleporter outside of Laksy, as well as the entire expanse of trainee island. It is not possible to hold battle within these areas.

Each town holds a number of NPCs with different services. These services include a Weapon Trader, Armour Trader, Teleporter, Lak Trader, Adventure Guide, Job Supporter and Merchant. Every town provides most services, although some services are offered by more than one NPC in Rondo. Some NPCs can be found outside the town areas. These only function as quest NPCs in most cases.

Trainee's Island is the starting place of any player character. It is a place set up with NPCs and quests as a means of tutorial, as well as reaching a character level upon which the player's character becomes viable in the mainland. Once a character reaches level 10 and completed the class transfer quest, it is possible to visit a Teleporter and transport towards the home town for that character's race. Once level 20 is reached, the character is unable to teleport back to Trainee's Island, however, as of Epic 5's early release all characters, regardless of level, may visit Trainee's Island.

Each race has its own home town; Horizon being that of the Gaia race, Laksy belonging to the Deva race, and Katan belonging to the Asura race.

Dungeon system

 

Dungeons are isolated places reached through portals. The monsters in dungeons are stronger than normal monsters with the same level, but the experience and job point reward for killing one is also higher. There are also items that can only be obtained as a dungeon drop. Dungeons are usually entered as a party, or dungeon party. Dungeon parties consist of a variety of classes, most including a healer/buffer, a tank, and multiple damage dealers. This enables the party to efficiently kill monsters and gain experience fast. Parties in Rappelz may contain up to 8 players. Dungeons are not instanced, meaning players will be able to interact with other characters and parties inside the dungeon. This also allows for kill-stealing (attacking a monster that was first attacked by another character outside their party, with the intent to 'steal' it away from them and/or receive a portion of the experience gain), and 'mob dropping' (pulling a large number of monsters towards another character or party, usually with the intent to have the 'mob' of monsters attack them instead, often resulting in the 'mobbed' party dying).

Rappelz has a feature in place that allows for guilds to 'own' a dungeon. Ownership of a dungeon brings certain advantages, such as a Lak and rupee 'tax' for characters using the dungeon. Acquiring ownership of a dungeon requires two steps. First a Dungeon Raid should be performed. Dungeon Raid is also called Time Attack, and consists of killing the two bosses that guard the specific dungeon. For example, for Relics of Arid Moonlight, these bosses are Oforia and Abhuva. During the Dungeon Raid, the dungeon is instanced, meaning no other player characters will be encountered.

If the raid succeeds, and manages to kill the bosses in the shortest amount of time compared to Dungeon Raids from others, the guild that performed the raid will move on to attempt a Dungeon Siege. Dungeon Sieges are held once a week on a set time. A Dungeon Siege is a war between a defending guild, the guild currently owning the dungeon, and the attacking guild, the guild who performed the Dungeon Raid. If the siege succeeds, ownership of the dungeon is transferred to the attacking guild. During the Dungeon Siege, the dungeon is instanced, meaning no other player characters will be encountered (with the exception of the opponent parties in the Siege).

Guilds 

 

Rappelz features a simple guild system, where any player above level 20 can register a guild at a Guild Official (NPC) in the major towns. Guilds offer players a group to play with. Up to five guilds can also come together to form an alliance. Players cannot player-kill another guild member or alliance member. A character who has just left a guild cannot join or create a guild within 7 days. This was implemented to avoid guild-hopping. An alliance owning a dungeon cannot add any other guild to the alliance.


In-game administrators


Rappelz's head Game Master, Tanda.

Game Masters (GM)

Rappelz's Game Masters are responsible for the day-to-day administration of the game, including tasks such as planning and running of events, bug tracking, testing, solving customer service issues, and answering player queries.

GM's are easily recognized by their [GM] name tag and their glowing aura.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rappelz 
*This info might change by time*
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