War of Emperium

Arguably one of the most popular features of Ragnarok Online, it pits guilds against other guilds, often involving lots of other guilds in the process.

Prontera, Geffen, Payon, and Al De Baran have a nearby map where the Castles for WoE are located. Each map has 5 Castles that spawn an Emperium during the WoE hours, also at which time WoE PvP is enabled. Each castle gives items daily from treasure boxes.

To participate in WoE combat, the player must simply be in a guild that has a point invested in 'Approval' (requires only one guild level to attain). Otherwise, they cannot deal damage to Emperiums. They can however still attack others in Castles and be attacked.

War of Emperium is a server-activated mode, meaning, it is only enabled at certain periods of time. On RRO, these are Eastern Time specific:

Loki:

Guild Authorization NPC has been added to all open castles. If you attempt to enter a castle without a guild you will be warped to your save point. If you attempt to enter without a guild 3 times, you will be jailed for 2 hours. All subsequent attempts will also result in a 2 hour jail. Emperium HP is increased to 10,000,000 HP. Friendly Guardians will no longer be effected by Ankle Snare. You may still Snare enemy Guardians. Alliances are disabled.

The overall goal is to destroy an enemy guild's Emperium, situated at the heart of their castle (always on level four, commonly referred to as “the Emp room”). Destroying their Emperium will allow the guild of the player who hit it last to overtake said Castle as theirs until either another guild destroys the Emperium or WoE ends (WoE mode will not stop until the designated WoE time is over). Because of this, it is common practice for guilds to attempt to hold off on breaking the Emperium of a castle they wish to capture until WoE is almost over, rather than breaking it near the start and having to defend their Castle for the full two hours of WoE.

Guilds often make alliances for mutual benefits of keeping the Castles and keeping would-be conquerors at bay by cooperating. Allying with another guild renders the members of the guilds unable to harm each other as if they were in the same guild. They will also be unable to attack or be attacked by the guardians of a castle an ally has, nor will they be able to attack the Emperium of a castle an ally has control over. During WoE time alliances may not be created or disbanded between guilds. It is impossible to leave a guild inside of a castle, and it is also impossible to expell someone from a guild while inside a castle.

To destroy an Emperium, enemy players must directly attack it. Emperiums are invulnerable against all forms of damage except direct physical attacks (passive skills like Double Attack will work on it, but active skills will not; long-range attacks from bows will also connect but these do suffer a -25% damage penalty during WoE). The Emperium is of the Angel race, Holy 1 element, and small sized.

Guild Leaders can hire the powerful guardian NPCs to patrol their guild's Castles if their guild has invested in the skill Guardian Research. During WoE they will attack all enemy guild members. While they can be destroyed or weakened, they can also be fully repaired or re-hired. Players cannot attack guardian NPCs during non-WoE periods and cannot be attacked by them. To ressurect Guardians, Guild Leaders must talk to the butler NPC present in all Castles, usually on the second floor. The guild skill Strengthen Guardians increases the attack power and attack speed of Guardians. Guardians are considered Demi Human race characters.

There are specific rules in the War of Emperium. These are as follows:

• The flags outside each Castle display the emblem of the Guild currently in charge of them. castles in the castle map by looking at the flag right next to the entrance to each castle.
• As long as someone owns a castle, WoE mode does not stop until the set time is over.
• When WoE mode begins, all guild members who are not member of the guild that owns that castle will be force-teleported to their last saved spot.
• When a guild successfully destroys the Emperium, everybody else not part of that guild will be force-teleported to their last saved spot. At the same time, it'll be globally announced in the server that the guild has taken the castle.
• If your guild owns the castle, 'talking' to the flag bearing your guild's emblem will let you port into your castle.
• Once your guild owns the castle, you can take your guild members into the guild dungeons. There are lots of powerful monsters, and occasionally, bosses will appear as well. Do note that any guilds not in your alliance can also be in the same guild dungeon map, and CAN engage in PvP with your guild members. Dying here - whether by players or monsters - will cost you EXP.
• Allied guilds cannot attack Emperium in each other's castle, and during WoE, allied guild members cannot hurt each other.

Each realm has its own private guild dungeon which can only be accessed by members of a guild currently holding a castle in that realm. Guild dungeons usually have somewhat more dangerous monsters than average dungeons, but also provide enhanced experience. Each guild dungeon has its own MVP monster and its own miniboss monster which usually have longer spawn times than those found outside. However, along with being filled with more dangerous monsters than usual, guild dungeons are all PvP enabled; thus all guilds which are not allied to a player's will be able attack and be attacked by members of that player's guild. It is strongly encouraged to exercise caution when venturing into a guild dungeon, as like all normal dungeons, experience is lost when a player dies.

All mobs within these dungeons have received major buffs to both stats and skills In addition to the normal guild dungeon, each Woe 1 castle area has a second floor called Hall of Abyss.

Each castle has a special NPC from which the guild master can make major decisions and maintain the castle. The following are functions which this NPC can perform:

Every day at 12:00 AM at server time, the Treasure Boxes spawn in a room accessible only by the guild leader from a NPC in each castle. Items drop from these boxes, and drop rate-improving items may assist in obtaining rares. Steal does not function here. For a list of item dropped by each castle, please refer to Treasure Box Drops.

These changes only affect War of Emperium zones to make the large scale guild versus guild battles viable.

• There is no indicator of damage. Criticals are shown up as blank critical bubble, with no number inside it.
• All graphical effects appear simplified (/mineffect is automatically enabled).
• Each player's guild emblem is displayed over their head.
• Death in WoE does not cause EXP loss.
• All skill based damage with the exception of Gloria Domini and Gravitational Field is reduced by 40%.
• All long-range attacks are reduced by 25%. This does not stack with long-range skill attacks (these are just reduced by 40%).
• Flee is reduced by 20%.
• Upon entering a new room in a WoE map, the player is given 5 seconds of invulnerability. This invulnerable status is forfeited as soon as they use an item, cast a skill, or move.
• All Hunter traps last 4 times as long in WoE.
• You cannot 'lock on' to players using CTRL+Click.
• Any abilities that push back enemies do not push back enemies, including enemy guardian NPCs in the castle. (i.e. The push-back effect of Bowling Bash)
• Ability Steal cannot steal from the Castle treasure box.
• Phen Card's 'immune to spell interruption' property does not work. However, skills with a cast time that cannot be interrupted will not lose this ability (unless they are Spell Broken).
• The Emperium is invulnerable to skill-based damage with the exception of Gravitational Field and Gloria Domini.
• Ninja's Cicada Skin Shed does not push the player back 7 cells.

• Thief's Back Slide
• Wizard's Ice Wall
• Gypsy & Minstrel duet Sheltering Bliss
• High Priest's Basilica & Assumptio (however Assumptio will remain if cast outside of the castle for its duration or until removed)
• Swordsman's Endure (also applies to items that give the same effect, i.e. Eddga carded shoes or anodyne)
• Teleport (including item Fly Wing)
• Rogue's Snatch
• Acolyte's Warp Portal
• Teakwons' High Jump