Events Mega Guide! How to have fun and succeed at UO:R events!

Introduction



Time to get fired up UOR!! This is the guide of guides – the Event Mega Guide!

Any UOR veteran will tell you – of all the amazing things about UOR, the things they look forward to most are the Events!

Year after year we keep coming back - re-training, strategizing, setting alarm clocks, and building up karma with our loved ones - so we can be prepared and ready for Chris and the UOR staff’s next big event!

This is essentially a 3 part guide:
Part I: Events Mega Guide! How to have fun and succeed at UOR Events!
Part II: Gideon's Guide to Tracking Events
Part III: UOR Event History Loot Guide 2.0

Whether you are competing for glory, wealth, or simply to have a kick ass time with your friends, preparedness is the key to success!

So read up, take notes, and get ready!

Table of Contents
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Valentine's Day
Part 3: St. Patty's Day
Part 4: Easter
Part 5: UO:R Anniversary
Part 6: Halloween
Part 7: Thanksgiving
Part 8: Christmas
Part 9: Other Events
Part X: Epilogue

Each event section will contain the following information:

When: Gives the approximate date(s) the event will run. Note that these are only an estimate. Staff has to put in a lot of work to make these possible so I would highly advise folks to help staff out by: being patient, being respectful, and if possible, offering to help out with event design.

Where: I've tried to give a description of where each event has taken place in the past. Please note that events change from year to year.

What: Brief description of the event type (ie. track-and-kill, survivor, etc.).

Historic Rewards: Summary of the items that have been found during past years of the event.

Strategy: A more detailed run-through of what one can expect to do and experience during the event.

Preparation: A summary of what a player can do now to get ready for the event.

Advanced: A veteran's perspective. I've also included an approximate spawn map I have made over time. If you improve it, feel free to share!​

You'll want to put this on your fridge:

Valentine's Day



This is the first major event each calendar year. It is an overworld event so it is high risk, high reward.
2016 Event Thread - Cupid Returns!
2015 Event Thread - Cupid is Back! Cupid and Psyche
2014 Event Thread - A Tale of Jilted Love and Cupid's Fury
2013 Event Thread - The Lost Love of Mondain

When:

Typically this event runs for about a week to 10 days around Valentine's Day - February 14th.

Where:

The event monsters and camps can be found randomly throughout the overworld, dungeons, and T2A.
You might want to read my previous Guide to Tracking Events to get an idea of how to find them.

The major part of the event takes place in the small valley outside dungeon Wrong.



What:

The majority of this event is focused at the champ idol outside Wrong making it the only champion event.
Objective: Activate the champion idol, work it through Tiers 1, 2, 3, and 4 by defeating waves of more powerful enemies, and lastly, defeat the boss.
Optional Objective: Travel all over the world killing event monsters.
Optional Objective: Travel all over the world locating camps, killing event monsters, rescuing prisoner NPCs, and looting chests.

Historic Rewards:

Platinum
Holiday Coin
Rare Deco
Rare Clothing
Rare Sandals
Rare Masks

A page on the Platinum and Holiday Reward Vendor was added in 2016:


Strategy:

As said previously, the monsters below will be found all over the world. Additionally, in 2016, camps would spawn that also had holiday coin in the chests or on the monsters.



The major part of the event, however, is located outside dungeon Wrong as a champ idol, as shown:



In the past, the following monsters have spawned during this event:
Bestiary Link


Tier 1 Monsters: Cupid's Rookie Archer and Minion of Cupid
Notes: These monsters die easily to melee, summons, tames, and most importantly, blade spirits. They do minimal damage but in packs, can kill.


Tier 2 Monsters: Cupid's Apprentice Archer and Servant of Cupid
Notes: These monsters die easily to melee, summons, tames, and most importantly, blade spirits. They do minimal damage but in packs, can kill.


Tier 3 Monsters: Cupid's Archer and Warrior of Cupid
Notes: These monsters aren't slouches and can dispel summons. Melee and tames are advised. They do moderate damage and in packs, are very dangerous.


Tier 4 Monsters: Cupid's Veteran Archer and Sorcerer of Cupid
Notes: These monsters aren't slouches and can dispel summons. Melee and tames are advised. They do moderate damage and in packs, are very dangerous.


Boss: Cupid
Cupid changes from year to year but in his most recent iteration he had the following abilities:
Teleport: Can teleport to damagers.
Telekinesis: Can teleport attackers to the throne that is on the roof of the building outside Wrong.
Pink Flame Nova: Does exactly what you would expect! Stay clear or expect to get smashed. Pets will take a lot of damage!


The OG 2013 Valentine's Thread explains the strategy for starting up the champ very well:

Step 1: Acquire a spell of true love (or whatever the scroll is called that year), double click it, and target the champ idol. This will begin Tier 1 and monsters will spawn all over the place - run away quick or expect to get swarmed and killed. Even though these guys are very weak, they will destroy you pretty easily in large numbers.

Step 2: Work the first 2 Tiers of the spawn. Bring some friends and get to slaying! There are a number of strategies here but I'll list them from what I consider most effective to least effective:

• Throw blade spirits into the mix. This works well while standing on top of the building outside Wrong (take the sparkles to teleport up).
• Use fields (fire and poison) and summoned demons.
• Use a tamer, archer, provoker, or dexers (cross healing will be essential)

Blade spirits are the most effective strategy on Tiers 1 and 2 as the monsters won't dispel. However, you'll need to be really careful as you can easily flag grey and get killed and looted. You'll quickly learn safe places to stand, minimizing damage to your character, where to place the blades so they always have new targets, and how to "manage" the spawn (that is, kill in such a way as you keep new monsters spawning close to you rather than having a build up of spawn on some other part of the valley).

Note: You will periodically be getting holiday coins and various rare items. In past years the rare items have been: scrolls of love, hued champagne and glasses, hued arrows, minion statuettes, valentine's day cards, and whispering roses. All nice stuff! These items often come in bags and go directly to your pouch, however, sometimes they are on the monster corpses (for example, if the monster dies and you are too far away). You will want to bank these items quickly and get back to the action!
​

Step 3: This is where it gets tough! The Tier 3 and 4 monsters can dispel and do a lot of damage. Bards and Tamers are very effective but so are archers and dexers. You will need a lot of manpower to defeat these guys but it's worth it! They drop a lot of gold, sometimes platinum, and continue dropping rares and holiday coins.

Note: Dragons and other tames are very unpredictable during this stage! They can start ignoring your command as they are being rapidly targeted by many enemies and before you know it are running headlong into packs of monsters and getting slaughtered. You will want to proceed with extreme caution as even seasoned tamers run into issues.
​

Step 4: Defeat Cupid! Easier said than done as he will be teleporting characters, throwing them back to Wrong, and sometimes is even equiped with a bow. This guy seriously doesn't mess around. Tamers, archers, and mages are all effective versus Cupid. Just make sure that you hit him and if he teleports to you, RUN! My advice is to drop explosion on him and run off screen! Might seem cowardly but hey, it works!

Step 5: Bank your loots and fire up another one! This event is fun because it's basically a server wide champ marathon - who doesn't love those?!

Preparation:

• Build a tamer and make sure to bond some dragons!
• Either use your tamer on Tiers 1 and 2 or have a mage ready to go on those blade spirits.
• Consider making either (or both) of the above characters a bard! Provoke is really useful on this event!
• Get a team of friends and group up in voice chat!
• Buy a TON of blade spirit regs!

Advanced:

• Thieves can do very well during this event as players are often standing around with high value items on them during and immediately after the champ.
• Multi-clienting the boss is very difficult but possible.
• The end boss gold explosion also contains some holiday coins.
• PKs and theives are rampant during this event - travel light and make sure you are constantly vigilant.
• As always, it is recommended to carry a player made box (made with carpentry and tinkering) with the Magic Lock spell cast on it. You can drop items into it, go to the bank, and retrieve them. This gives you a little bit of safety versus thieves.
• Cupid has a chance to drop very good items directly to your pack - exceptional runic archery weapons and in the past, pink hued sandals.

St. Patty's Day



This is the second major event each calendar year. It is an overworld event so it is high risk, high reward.
2016 Event Thread
2015 Event Thread
2014 Event Thread
2013 Event Thread

When:

Typically this event runs for about a week to 10 days around St. Patty's Day - March 17th.

Where:

The event monsters can be found randomly throughout the overworld, dungeons, and T2A.
You might want to read my previous Guide to Tracking Events to get an idea of how to find them.

What:

This is a track-and-kill event.
Objective: Travel all over the world killing as many leprechauns as you can for their loot.

Historic Rewards:

Platinum
Holiday Coin
Rare Deco
Rare Clothing
Rare Sandals



Strategy:
As said previously, the monsters below will be found all over the world. Additionally, last year, camps would spawn that also had holiday coin in the chests or on the monsters.

In the past, the following monsters have spawned during this event:
Bestiary Link

Leprechaun

Leprechauns die fairly easily to summons, blade spirits, energy vortex, tamers, and even dexers if you cross heal. They are basic melee monsters that hide and stealth. They can teleport short distances.

I have seen the most successful leprechaun slayers use Energy Vortex scrolls or tamers to take them down.

The hardest part is finding them. You will want to read my guide on Tracking Events and develop a system for locating their spawn points. Since they have hiding and stealth, detect hidden is advised (it gives a bonus to chance to track hidden/stealthed creatures and characters).

Preparation:

• Read my previous guide on Tracking Events
• Build a Scout character (GM Magery, Meditation, Tracking, and Detect Hidden)
• Make a macro to use Tracking, wait .1, and select gump option: NPC Humanoid (so you can run and track)
• Stockpile: Recall Runes, Recall and Gate Regs, and possibly Energy Vortex Scrolls
• If you aren't going with Energy Vortex, I recommend building a Tamer and bonding some dragons!

Advanced:

• Using a scout to locate leprechauns and gating in another character to fight them can be effective.
• Use Control+Shift often while running around - those pots of gold won't announce themselves!
• I'd recommend adding cauldron to scavenger.
• I have found the following locations to be relatively spawn heavy along with dungeons and T2A. This doesn't mean that they don't spawn elsewhere, however.
• I'd recommend building a few runebooks to assist you in scouting the regions indicated before the event starts.

Easter


This is the third major event each calendar year. It is an overworld event so it is high risk, high reward.
2016 Event Thread
2015 Event Thread
2014 Event Thread
2013 Event Thread

When:

Typically this event runs for about a week to 10 days around Easter - Late March to Mid April.

Where:

The event monsters can be found randomly throughout the overworld, dungeons, and T2A.
You might want to read my previous Guide to Tracking Events to get an idea of how to find them.

What:

This is a modified track-and-kill event.
Objective: Travel all over the world collecting as many eggs as you can.
Optional Objective: Kill event monsters.

Historic Rewards:

Easter rewards are somewhat unique as most are purchased with easter egg points rather than platinum or holiday coin. In additional to the purchasable rewards, in each of the past 4 years, Fluffy has had a chance to drop a "furry dragon scale" while the Easter bunny has had a chance to drop "rabbit feet." Both will be in the special hue for that year. I have not been able to confirm if skinning either monster can result in a hued fur but it hasn't stopped me from trying!

Platinum
Holiday Coin
Rare Deco



Strategy:

As said previously, the monsters below will be found all over the world.



This event is a little different because you can do quite well without actually slaying any monsters.

As described in my Tracking Guide:

During Easter there have typically been 2 types of enemies - Easter Bunnies and Fluffy. Finding Easter Bunnies is the main objective as they drop Easter Eggs on the ground behind them as they wander around. Fluffy is the Easter Bunny's dragon protector which will spawn if the Easter Bunny is damaged. The goal of the event is to collect Eggs, not necessarily kill Easter Bunnies.



The recommended strategy for this event is to roam the over world (via scouting and milking as described previously), locating Easter Bunnies, and collecting their eggs. You then turn your eggs into the NPC at the bank as shown in the picture below.



Easter Bunnies will only drop so many Easter Eggs before going dry and then they will need to be killed. You will need to dispatch both the Easter Bunny and it's Fluffy protector - they are tethered together.

The Easter Bunny isn't particularly strong. It uses melee only and can be easily killed by a dexer or tamer. I do not believe they are able to dispel summons. Easter Bunnies show up under Animals.

The Fluffy protector is a whole different story as it's essentially a beefy White Wyrm which means it packs a powerful melee and very high magery - very often casting Flamestrike and easily dispelling summons. Tamers are advised against Fluffy, however, dexers have been known to take them down. Fluffy shows up under Monsters.

Both of these monsters might drop rare items and rare hued furs when skinned (waiting for confirmation on this) - make sure to skin them!

Preparation:

• Read my previous guide on Tracking Events
• Build a Scout character (GM Magery, Meditation, Tracking, and Detect Hidden)
• Make a macro to use Tracking, wait .1, and select gump option: Animal (so you can run and track for easter bunnies)
• Make a macro to use Tracking, wait .1, and select gump option: Monsters (so you can run and track for Fluffy)
• Stockpile: Recall Runes, Recall and Gate Regs
• I recommend building a Tamer and bonding some dragons to dispatch the bunny and fluffy after they stop plopping!
• Additionally, I recommend either building a second tamer (fluffy is VERY strong) or building a veterinary specialist character (example, archer w/ 100 dex and veterinary + lore to heal your dragons).

Advanced:

• Using a scout to locate enemies and gating in another character to fight them can be effective.
• Use Control+Shift often while running around - those eggs will spawn very often even without bunnies around!
• I recommend putting eggs on scavenger.
• I have found the following locations to be relatively spawn heavy along with dungeons and T2A. This doesn't mean that they don't spawn elsewhere, however.
• I'd recommend building a few runebooks to assist you in scouting the regions indicated before the event starts.

UOR Anniversary



This is one of the most anticipated events of the year and kicks off the end of year holiday rush of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
2015 Event Thread - 3rd Year Anniversary!
2014 Event Thread - 2nd Year Anniversary!
2013 Event Thread - 1st Year Anniversary!

When:

UOR was launched in late August 2012. This event celebrates that launch and UOR's continued success. The event typically runs for four days around the end of August and beginning of October.

Where:

This event takes place anywhere in the overworld. Certain rounds might also include dungeons or T2A but it is announced before hand.

What:

This is a scavenger hunt with the goal of finding Chris (Telamon) using clues he will give in IRC.
Objective: Find Chris faster than other players and earn points.
Optional Objective: The second portion of this event has traditionally been a log-in-and-get-paid event. One character per account will receive a goody bag for logging in during the event. Clothing, newbied jewelry, clothing bless deeds, and hair/beard restyles can be found in the bags. See the image below for an example from 1st year.



Historic Rewards:

Server Birth Uniques
Rare Clothing
Rare Sandals
Rare Masks

3rd Anniversary Prize Room:


2nd Anniversary Prize Room:


1st Anniversary Prize Room:


Strategy:

I'm just going to borrow the official rules because it makes it very clear.

The event runs on 4 days during pre-announced times. The dates/times shown below were for 3rd anniversary.

During our anniversary weekend we will be running a 4 part scavenger hunt event.
Scavenger Hunt Event - Schedule

• Friday August 28th @ 11pm Cst (12am est, 9pm pst)
• Saturday August 29th @ 1pm cst (2pm est, 11am pst)
• Sunday August 30th @ 3pm cst (4pm est, 1pm pst)
• Monday August 31st @ 6pm cst (7pm est, 4pm pst)

Scavenger Hunt Event - How to Particpate

• Be prepared to travel the world, following clues in order to find Chris ingame (see my avatar)
• You should have the ability to recall, a horse and access to a rune library.
• A detailed knowledge of the UO world and a bit of UO lore is a huge help.
• Simply follow the clues and speak to Chris ingame to place in each round.
• Players earn 3 points for 1st, 2 points for second and 1 point for 3rd in each round.
• Ties are determined by checking Chris's journal.
• Each event will have 12 rounds.
• Players will need to be prepared to travel to towns, the overworld and dungeons
• Each character may only score in two events. Allowing for our international and working players to have an equal chance.

Scavenger Hunt - Registration

• In order to register for the event I will need to be given a character name and forum name.
  Note: You can do this via IRC Pm, Forum PM, or before any of the event rounds. Making sure I have your contact information is critical

Scavenger Hunt - Scoring and Prizes

• Each players points will be pooled to determine a clear ranking ladder.
• Ties will be determined by 1st place finishes. (1 first place > 3 third place finishes)
• Players, in order of placement will gain access to the prize room shown below.
• Players can choose 1 item from the prize room.
• 1st, 2nd and 3rd Place will earn a trophy honoring their achievement.
• Players will also earn platinum based on their total event score.
• Each character may only score in two events. Allowing for our international or working players to have an equal chance.
• You may use a 2nd character for a 3rd and 4th round for another chance at the prize room.
  Note: However this character cannot access the prize room before everyones first character.
  Note: The masks are just for reference, 4 mask dyes are available as prizes.
  Note: You must be present monday evening in order to select a prize from the prize room. If you are not available you will need to provide me with your top 10 selections, or allow me to choose for you.

​

My summary:

To make it fair, there are 4 rounds, but any particular character can only participate in 2 rounds and the points they earn are pooled.

Here is a link to the final standings after 4 rounds so it is more clear: standings.

If a player manages to attend 4 times (on 2 different characters) it doesn't really matter because their first character they played with is the one that competes with everybody else. If they managed to do very well on the 2nd character, that character is still considered as having a lower score than anybody else's primary characters. In past years that 2nd character would get a 2nd pick after everybody got a 1st pick with their primary but in year 3 that was done away with entirely I believe. No picks were awarded to 2nd characters so at that point you're just competing for fun.

Preparation:

• Make a macro to say "Chris".
• Don't spam the macro, just hit it when you get close to him.
• Have access to an expansive runebook library.
• Be fast, the competition is fierce.
• Have the following resources available:
  • UORenaissance World Map
  • UO AutoMap
  • Mumble and a group of friends
  • Calculator
  • Google

Advanced:

I will give my personal experience on this one over 3 years of competition.

In year 1 the competition wasn't extremely intense and I managed to place 4th I think without too much UO lore knowledge, being fairly unfamiliar with the map, and honestly being pretty slow on the clues. I was very lucky, also.

In year 2 I was extremely prepared. I had scoured the entire map, built a custom library with a corresponding map that had something like 15 full runebooks marked and plotted. Additionally I had access to the traditional libraries - towns, shops, dungeons, tmap, and rares. Most importantly, I ran the entire map and I noted every unique feature I could imagine. Yes, I went full crazy on the preparation. It paid off and I won the event. However! I still got very lucky. I also worked with a team in mumble which was very helpful on several rounds.

Year 3 I wasn't playing the game very much due to work. I went in with basically no prep. I still had a group of friends on mumble and my library but I was rusty on the map and since I hadn't just put my library together, I was slow on recalling which rune led to where. I did very poorly. But I still had a great time!

The best advice I can give anybody are these 3 things:

• If you really want to win, you will need to prepare. I cannot express enough how difficult this event is.
• Go into this event not expecting to win - just have fun! The locations are interesting and the clues can be mind boggling. Have fun with it!
• Everybody ends up getting a good prize so don't stress over the pixels.

Halloween



Halloween is a survival style challenge event which pits the participants against a horde of enemies with very few supplies. This is the best event!
2015 Event Thread - The invasion reaches a new level as East Britain is overrun!
2014 Event Thread - Balam returns!
2013 Event Thread - Balam invades Britain!
2012 Event Thread - UOR's first holiday event! Moonglow under siege!

When:

Typically this event runs for about two weeks around Halloween - October 31st.

Where:

This event takes place in two parts.
The town invasions typically last the duration of the event and can be located in one or more cities and graveyards. In 2015 Skara Brae was completely overrun and so were many graveyards (Britain, Cove, Vesper, and Yew).
The instance event is fired off according to a specific schedule (see 2015's schedule below).



What:

This is a town invasion event.
Objective: Kill as many event monsters as you can for their loot. Historic locations have been various graveyards and cities.

This event is a survival style challenge event.
Objective: Show up at the specified event launch times with no gear, join the event lobby and register for the event with the book, then wait for the event to begin. In the event, acquire resources and gear, kill event monsters and bosses, and acquire loot!

Historic Rewards:

Some rewards will drop to monster corpses, some will go directly to pack, and others can be purchased with holiday coin.

Platinum
Holiday Coin
Rare Deco
Rare Clothing
Rare Footwear
Rare Masks

This is the 2015 Reward Vendor Menu:


Strategy:

The overworld event is high risk, high reward. Thieves and PKs will be everywhere so I recommend working with some other players, hitting locations fast and depositing your loots in the bank quickly. Dexers, bards, tamers, and mages can all be effective during this portion of the event. Holiday coin and rare items are the reward - so get busy!

The survival event is the best part!

The event typically runs for about 30 minutes to an hour. Everybody (sometimes over 100 players) will start out with no items (not even a spellbook or newbied/blessed items) and have to scavenge for supplies.

The goal of the event is very straight forward: move as a group, upgrade your equipment, and work together to take down all the bosses. Once all the bosses have been defeated, the final boss, Balam, can be engaged. Each boss in the event has a candle on the wall of Brit Castle. If players aren't sure which bosses are still up, they can check the candles.

The map below shows the various locations during 2016:
Star 1 and Star 2: Start Points
Green Star 3: Chamber of Virtues Crafting Area
Pink Hearts: Additional Resurrection Areas
Orange Stars 4-11: Bosses
Purple Star 12: Final Boss, Balam



Due to the nature of the event, dexers and dexer bards are the best templates as they can put out good dps and have good survivability with bandages. Mages can also be effective but they have to locate a spell book, scrolls, and regs before they start to become effective.

The above should give you a good idea of what to expect and how to be successful.

These pictures should also help (thanks Vlar!):

Event Center before the round:
Note players use different color robes to form teams.


Early on, equipment is scarce so a small group is working on acquiring much needed metal and ore:


Crafters and players converge on the Chamber of Virtues to gear up:
Note that players are bringing materials to crafters in exchange for equipment.


Much of the army is just north engaging the Necromancer and Undead Dragon in the Brit Cemetery. Those who fall are resurrected here at the Brit Smithy and are returning to the battle.


All the bosses have been defeated and the players rush to engage Balam in Brit Castle:


Balam unleashes his flame wave attack:


Happy participants dumping their trash and banking their loot.
Note, this is a good time to give your crafter and mages a tip.
They sacrifice skill points and time helping others in the event.


In 2015, at the conclusion of the event, the scoreboard would display how everybody did. Points can be earned for crafting, healing, and damage on monsters (split into various categories). The leader in each category was awarded a trophy. All participants who managed to contribute were awarded a goody bag containing some holiday semi rares, holiday coin, and a chance at rare items.

This scoreboard was from one of the early test rounds:



Hard mode score board:



Preparation:

• Build one or more characters you feel would best suit your play style during the event.
• Example templates:
  
  • Pure Dexer - Axer, Swordsman, Fencer, Macer, or even a Parry Warrior - all are effective builds!
  • Dexer with Provo, Peace, or Disco - all are extremely effective!
  • Bard Mage, Heal Mage, or Pure Mage - Essential support class for any group! Tip your mages!
  • Crafter - A smith is essential for any team, bowyer is nice, and miner is also very helpful. Tip your crafters!
  
  
• Build razor macros to assist with targeting and attacking various types of monsters (it is crowded so targeting can be tough).
• Build razor restock macros to assist with looting supplies like bandages, scrolls, reagents, armor, potions, etc.

Advanced:

• If you go into this event alone you will probably become frustrated because cross healing and sharing of resources are basically essential.
• Join a group and get in voice!
• Groups should have the following team members:
  
  • Several Dexers - they will be your dps and your wall against the hordes of enemies.
  • At least one mage dedicated to cures and heals. They can be effective damage dealers once they acquire explosion, ebolt, or a summon scroll. All team members should focus on acquiring these spells for your mage(s): Cure, Greater Heal, Damage, and Summons!
  • As many characters from the ones listed above with provoke. This skill is absolutely critical as it will distract your enemies, saving very scarce resources like bandages, potions, and healing reagents.
  • Any number of characters with peacemaking or discordance.
  • Somebody to equip your team so at least one character with mining to smelt metal items and either the same character or another character with smithing to smash out some exceptional weapons and get them into your hands as quickly as possible.
  
  
• Groups should aim to share the following resources:
  
  • Smithing Tools, Metal, and Ore to your miner and/or smith.
  • Scissors, Cloth, Bandages, Weapons, and Armor to your dexers.
  • Instruments to your bards.
  • A Spellbook, Scrolls, and Bags of Reagents to your mages.
  • Potions and Food to whomever is in short supply.
  
  
• Groups should have a pre-determined plan and a leader!

You basically want to roll in a very tight group, calling out targets in voice and calling for heals and supplies. The more efficiently you can load out your members and work your way through the enemies, the stronger your group will become as you equip exceptional weapons and your mage gets appropriate spells and enough reagents to keep your members out of redline.

A good strategy is to send everybody out scavenging first - hit up chests and corpses and pick off any weak enemies you can. Everybody should pool all the metal and ore they get back to their crafter. Once you've geared everybody up to fighting shape, ball up and pick a target - for example, the Frankenstein monster located in north Brit. Rally together and call targets and heals, working your way to that boss. Work together to clear trash - don't just zerg bosses. Every enemy slain counts for points and can drop valuable loot and supplies. Take down the boss and then move to the next.

It is very helpful to have a designated "point" character to which others rally and a dedicated team color and group formed up. This makes cross healing and resource sharing very easy.

If you follow the above instructions you should have a very effective team and should have a great time working out strategies for each enemy and boss monster! It might even be a good idea to pool your rewards. While healing, barding, and crafting might not net the same payout as a pure Lumberjack, all members are very important to your group and individual success - so consider sharing those rewards!

​

Boss Locations and Strategies:



Star 4: Frankenstein's Monster
Kill any spawn around him and cross heal through his damage.
He will throw limbs and chain lightning so mages need to be quick on heals.


Star 5: Royal Mummy
Kill any spawn around him and cross heal through his damage.
He will announce his AOE poison attack - get back quick or you will be hit with high level poison.
Mages are important here for cure!


Star 6: Queen of the Damned
Kill any spawn around her and try to drag her and her minions outside.
Dispatch her minions first or she's impossible to kill!
Cross heal through her AOE life drain.


Star 7: The Black Knight
Kill any spawn around him and cross heal through his damage.
He will inflict poison in addition to his heavy melee damage so mages need to be quick on cures and heals.


Star 8: Undead Pirates
Kill any spawn around him (including his minions) and cross heal through his damage.


Stars 9 and 10: Necromancer and Undead Dragon
Kill any spawn around the Necromancer and Undead Dragon and cross heal through their damage.
They are pretty much right on each other so you'll want to have teams focusing on each.
Do not ignore the trash mobs or they will overwhelm you.
If possible, avoid getting hit by the Dragon's AOE attack.


Star 11: Vampire Lord and Co
Kill any spawn around the bank and cross heal through his and his minions' damage.
Kill the vampire mistresses first or things will go very badly.


Star 12: Balam
Kill any spawn around him and cross heal through his damage.
Kill the Acolytes of Death or you're in for a world of hurt.
Avoid his AOE attack.
Absolutely do not ignore the trash mobs here. It is very easy to get overwhelmed.

Good luck!

Most importantly, have fun!​

Thanksgiving



This the second to last event of the year. It is an overworld event so it is high risk, high reward.
2015 Event Thread - Rescue!
2014 Event Thread - Indian Invasion!
2013 Event Thread - Pillaging Pilgrims!
2012 Event Thread - Turkey Rampage!

When:

Typically this event runs for about a week to 10 days around Thanksgiving which lands towards the end of November.

Where:

The event monsters can be found randomly throughout the overworld, dungeons, and T2A.
You might want to read my previous Guide to Tracking Events to get an idea of how to find them.

What:

This is a track-and-kill event.
Objective: Travel all over the world killing as many event monsters as you can for their loot.
Optional Objective: Travel all over the world locating camps, killing event monsters, rescuing prisoner NPCs, and looting chests.

Historic Rewards:

Platinum
Holiday Coin
Rare Deco
Rare Clothing
Rare Footwear
Rare Named and Unhued Masks

Strategy:

As said previously, the monsters below will be found all over the world.
Bestiary Link




Wild Turkey
Savage Turkey
Bloodthirsty Turkey
Indian Archer
Indian Fencer
Indian Macer
Indian Knight



Additionally, in 2016, camps would spawn that also had holiday coin in the chests or on the monsters.




Preparation:

• Read my previous guide on Tracking Events
  
• Build a Scout character (GM Magery, Meditation, Tracking, and Detect Hidden)
• Make a macro to use Tracking, wait .1, and select gump option: NPC Humanoid (so you can run and track)
• Stockpile: Recall Runes, Recall and Gate Regs, and possibly Energy Vortex Scrolls
• If you aren't going with Energy Vortex, I recommend building a Tamer and bonding some dragons!

Advanced:

• Using a scout to locate event monsters and gating in another character to fight them can be effective.
• I'd recommend adding holiday coins to restock (for both corpses and chests).
• I have found the following locations to be relatively spawn heavy along with dungeons and T2A. This doesn't mean that they don't spawn elsewhere, however.
• I'd recommend building a few runebooks to assist you in scouting the regions indicated before the event starts.

Christmas



This is the last major event each calendar year. Much of the event is an overworld event so it is high risk, high reward. The secondary component is an instanced event accessed through Christmas Scrolls similar to AMIBS (ancient message in a bottle). Many players probably consider this the best event of the year!
2015 Event Thread - Dark Magic Awakens!
2014 Event Thread - Santa, the Grinch, and the Dark Elves!
2013 Event Thread - The attack of the Dark Elves!
2012 Event Thread - Bad Santa attacks!

When:

The overworld event runs for about two to three weeks around Christmas - during the end of December and beginning of January. The Christmas Scroll instance events can be accessed throughout the calendar year.

Where:

The event monsters can be found randomly throughout the overworld, dungeons, and T2A. You might want to read my previous Guide to Tracking Events to get an idea of how to find them. This Christmas Scroll instance events take place in 4 locations in Trammel.

What:

This is a track-and-kill event.
Objective: Kill as many event monsters as you can for their loot - particularly, Christmas scrolls.

Christmas Scrolls:
- Santa's Lair
- The Hidden Village
- Frozen Continent
- Ice Fortress

This event is an instanced event.
Objective: Use a Christmas Scroll in a safe location, bring friends, kill event monsters and bosses, and acquire loot!

Historic Rewards:

Some rewards will drop to monster corpses, some will go directly to pack, and others can be purchased with holiday coin.

Platinum
Holiday Coin
Rare Deco
Rare Clothing
Rare Footwear
Rare Masks

This is the 2015 Reward Vendor Menu:


Strategy:

The overworld event is high risk, high reward. Thieves and PKs will be everywhere so I recommend working with some other players, hitting locations fast and depositing your loots in the bank quickly. Dexers, bards, tamers, and mages can all be effective during this portion of the event. Holiday coin, Christmas Scrolls, and rare items are the reward - so get busy!

The Holiday Scroll instance events are the best part!

There are four of these (just like AMIBS) and they rank from easiest to hardest as shown in the images below. Each requires different tactics as you'll face different monsters and bosses. Thankfully there already exists an extensive guide for these (phew!). See the guide here. Make sure to carefully read Telamon's explanation of how the event, scoring, ironmanning, and trophies work.

Here are some sweet images to get you hyped up:







Preparation:

• You will need a tracker for the overworld event. I'd recommend reading my tracking guide.
• Tamers are really effective versus the overworld spawn.
• Work with a team to quickly locate monsters and gate in tamers. Share your loot!
• Provo Dexxers are the most effective templates in the instances, however, tamers and other templates are quite effective.

Advanced:

• Monsters in dungeons have a higher chance to drop holiday coin and Christmas Scrolls.
• Working with a team ensures you can defend against other players.
• Make sure somebody in your group can use discordance on the monsters.
• The boss monsters (for example: reindeer, yeti, elf rangers, elven mages, etc.) seem to have a better chance to drop Christmas Scrolls but often spawn additional enemies. Being in a group makes taking these down considerably easier.
• Christmas Scrolls are not blessed and can be stolen.
• You absolutely must use safety measures when initiating a Christmas Scroll event!! Optimal strategy: Gate all participants into a secure room in a house which is blocked off with a table wall, have the scroll waiting in a secure container, wait for the gate to close (dispel field only dispels ONE SIDE of the gate and people can still hop into your house from the other end!), use detect hidden, access the scroll, and then start the event. Everybody must enter the gate before it closes or they won't be able to join.
• Monsters within the instances drop holiday coin and rares and the final chests contains additional coin as well as possible rares or even additional Christmas Scrolls.
• Christmas Scrolls are bought and sold quickly - you might consider doing either depending on if you are more in need of gold or holiday coin.
• Your progress during the instance event will be tracked automatically. You are awarded additional points for using fewer players, fewer tames, killing more monsters, killing more bosses, and taking less time.
• The players with the highest scores for each instance receive trophies at the conclusion of the holiday time period.
• You can "Ironman" the instance events (solo them) for additional rewards and more points on the leaderboard.
• Ironmanning these instances is extraordinarily challenging.
• Provo dexers are the most effective templates overall, particularly if using runic and slayer weapons, and especially for ironmanning (tamer dps is simply too low). Fencer Provo and Lumberjack Provo are both well-liked templates.

Instance Specific Tips and Tricks:

- Santa's Lair​

• Santa's Lair is considered the easiest event. It is definitely the easiest to ironman.
• Using the scroll while inside the event will show you how many reindeer you still need to kill before you can fight Santa (he resides in the North West portion of the map).
• Deer can be powerful magic users.
• Santa and his bear use an AOE attack that you can avoid if you stand on top of them.

- The Hidden Village​

• Hidden Village is considered the second easiest event but is extremely difficult to ironman.
• Using the scroll while inside the event will show you how many more packages you need to return to the houses (there are 9 total packages which will drop from monsters and need to be returned to NPCs in the event to spawn the Grinch).
• You will want to split up monsters as the bosses often spawn additional monsters and you can quickly be overwhelmed.

- Frozen Continent​

• This is the third most difficult instance.
• Bears, including ridable polar bears, can be tamed in the instance and mounted.
• Should you dismount the bear, you will not be able to re-mount except during Christmas time.
• Make sure to split up the monsters, especially the elf spirits. Getting overwhelmed here can be really bad.

- Ice Fortress​

• This is the most difficult instance.
• Bears can also be tamed in this instance.
• Splitting mobs is essential during this event as they are often grouped up or spawn minions.
• The Elf Commander boss will spawn additional mini bosses after being dealt a bit of damage. Engage him with the intention of triggering his summon, then flee, regroup, and split the monsters.

​

Other Events

Monster Bashes

​

Monster bashes can take place at any time depending on the whims of staff, fate, or player run events. There have been a wide variety of monster bashes ranging from very short to lasting many hours and as simple as spawning zombies to full harrower (end game boss) spawnings.

Some of these are connected into various story arcs. "The Plague" has been an evolving story line revolving around magic and pet resistant zombies invading various cities. Another story line has involved a mad scientist usually operating out of Moonglow and his various monster machinations (ranging from elementals to monster-animal hybrids).

Often, monster bashes herald major shard additions. The following content additions were released with a corresponding monster bash: Housing, AMIBs, Zoo Keeper Quest, Level 7 Maps, and Pirate Forts.

Additionally, monster bashes often signal either the beginning or conclusion of an official shard event. For example, at the conclusion of Halloween there was a massive invasion of Britain by monsters and an incredible number of boss monsters (Ogre Mages, Wyvern Monarchs, etc.).

The best advice I can give for being successful at Monster Bashes is to:

• Keep an eye on main IRC chat and be in communication with a lot of players who will tell you if one has launched.
• Scout out the event to decide the safest way to engage the monsters.
• Quickly decide if the event seems to favor dexers, mages, bards, tamers, or some other template.
• Engage monsters (especially the mini bosses and bosses), stay alive, and bank often!

​

4th of July

This is a simple log-in-and-get-paid event. Logging in during the 4th will award a single character per account a goody bag containing semi-rare drinks, fireworks wands, and possibly a holiday bell (each year has a unique hue).
​

Deco Contests

​

The UOR Staff typically hosts one deco contest per year which will be announced well in advance. Submissions will be divided into various categories (example, small, medium, large) and players get to vote. Final placement is based on some combination of player and staff voting and rewards are awarded. These events are highly competitive!​

Epilogue



I cannot express enough how great the events are on UOR. The game and community itself are incredible but the events got me hooked almost four years ago. Many of my best memories over the last four years have occurred during events.

I still remember managing to eek out a victory during the Halloween instance event of 2012 which was held in the ruined Moonglow map. Caly of Yew, an acquaintance at the time, but soon after, a friend, supported me by delivering me much needed reagents and monsters. Together we managed to grab the victory. Still, to this day, that trophy is my most cherished as it is my first and it was the most challenging to achieve. I had never done any events, let alone GM a skill yet on Renaissance.

Another memorable event was the challenge mode Christmas event of 2012 in which I lost the lead at the very end to LesClaypool. That 2nd place trophy is something I also cherish as that event was incredibly challenging. I felt I managed to pull off an amazing run out on my own against a horde of reindeer and elves - it felt like it was me versus the world for over 30 minutes.

Some other notable memories -

Halloween 2013 - This was something special. Britain was completely overrun and the player base was in absolute awe at the scale of the event - myself included.​

2nd Anniversary 2014 - To be honest, it is all a blur. I think I'm still experiencing heart issues 2 years later.​

Valentines Day 2015 - Matching The Musician blade spirit for blade spirit and Cupid for Cupid.

Halloween 2015 - Managed to win the hard mode on my smith! One of the toughest hours of pvm I've participated in!

Christmas 2015 - Our group worked together scouting and hunting for elves and deer - all the while yelling Rico Suave in voice.
​

These memories are something I really look back on with a ton of joy - as nerdy as that is. I look back at each previous event but also look that much forward to the next. I hope this guide is helpful in getting you prepared but more importantly - in getting you hyped! Win or lose, I've never been upset or let down by an event here on UOR. Every last one has been a blast and I am very thankful to Chris and staff for putting in countless hundreds of hours to make them all possible.

Long live UOR! Hype!

Gideon Jura
Adventure Time, O^S, Crunchwrap Crew, and PlatTrain





Phat Lewts

"Woah woah woah, Gideon, where's the dirty deets on all the phat lewts?!"

Worry not friends, I'm not gonna leave you hanging like that. I wanted to give a new player intro to the events through this guide but not spoil too much information. For those interested,

Behold: Gideon's Guide to Event Loot (tm)

​

Uhhhh....... my god

Written by someone who truly loves this game! Congratulations, Gideon

Bumping this to the first page

+1

very good

Wow and double wow. Once again you amaze us with your wonderful and truly helpful information. Thank you so much for your time, effort and skills in doing this for us. You help make this server great

Thank you!

One of best guides ever!

bump for HYPE!!!!!!

Bump for awesomeness!