As part of Albion Online’s pre-beta overhaul, developer Sandbox Interactive is retooling the game’s existing Hellgates. No, not that Hellgate. In Albion, Hellgates are basically free-for-all PvP zones with seriously badass monsters. PvP inside the gates is unfettered and comes without reputation loss, but the baddies and their extreme loot make it worth the effort.
“While in general Hellgates have been well-received and they are a great source for intense PvP fights, we feel that we can make them even better,” Sandbox explains. “The main issues Hellgates currently have are related to teams dodging fights or pulling mobs to gain an unfair advantage in fights.”
The studio aims to incentivize play inside the gates with a newly designed map, three difficulty levels, and the elimination of mob interference in PvP encounters. But there’s still plenty of reason to PvE inside these special maps:
“There are three incentives for going after the minibosses. First of all they drop a significant amount of loot, as well as silver and fame. Secondly, killing a miniboss will grant you a damage buff and health restoration. Lastly, killing all minibosses will trigger the main boss spawn and close the Hellgate entrances. This means no other team can get in, making it a very valuable objective for the first team to enter the Hellgate. Once all minibosses are down, the main boss will not trigger right away, giving everyone enough time to move towards the center of the map.”
