War of Emperium

For information on WoE 2, see War of Emperium 2

For information on Baby WoE, see Baby WoE

Overview

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 specicic:
All Servers:

• 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.

Eir:

• Guardian attack power has been boosted.

Loki:

• 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.

Woe Revamp - Part 01

• [Added] Antagonists now have a function!
  
  • When setting an antagonist, your guild will now receive a bonus to both attack and defence when fighting the scoundrels!
  • The bonus is a sliding scale and makes use of the Tendency system (see below).
  • Even if you choose not to take part in the Tendency system, your guild will still gain bonuses when fighting antagonists.
  • The bonus will only apply on GvG maps, or Castle maps during WoE time.
• [Added] Castle Economy now has a re-capture mechanic.
  • When a guild captures a Castle now, a portion of the Economy of that Castle will be "sacked".
  • If the original owners of that Castle then take that Castle back, this Economy will be regained (including any extra Economy the Castle accrued in the hands of the enemy).
  • If, however, another guild then takes this Castle, the original owners will have lost their chance to regain their Economy; the mechanic now applies to this guild and the original capturing guild.
  • The amount of Economy sacked and regained from capturing a Castle will now be displayed in the breaking announcement.
  • This re-capture mechanic will not carry over from one WoE to the next; therefore you have limited time to re-capture your Castle to regain your lost Economy.
  • If a Castle is abandoned, the Economy is lost and the original guild will have lost their chance to re-capture the Castle to regain the Economy.
• [Added] A new system, called the Tendency system, has been added.
  • You will already know what this is: it is the Tendency graph in the guild window.
  • The letters stand for the following (top-clockwise): Righteousness, Fame, Wickedness, Vulgarity.
  • Currently, we will only be making use of the x-axis, called Honour.
  • Honour ranges from Vulgar to the left and Fame to the right (no relation to Notoriety, don't worry!).
  • A guild may alter their Honour by their actions during War of Emperium.
  • To increase Fame, a guild may defend their Castles by defeating any enemies that dare try to siege their stronghold. Fame will increase faster when defending an allied guild's Castle, and even faster when vanquishing an ally's antagonist in the ally's Castle.
  • To increase Vulgarity, a guild may invade other guild's Castles and defeat its defenders. It will increase faster if a guild attacks their antagonist's Castles and defeat the cowering fools therein.
  • As mentioned above, Honour affects the bonuses gained when fighting against antagonists: when fully Vulgar, a guild will gain 5% damage to antagonists; when fully Famous, a guild will gain 5% defence to antagonists. When completely neutral (as everyone will be after this update), a guild will have 2.5% damage and defence increases to antagonists. These bonuses are similar to how the over-refine bonus is calculated, in that they take place after all other battle calculations. The damage and defence increases apply to all attacks.
  • We will be making use of Virtue (the y-axis) at a later date.
• [Changed] The maximum amount of Alliances a guild may have is now one. Please note, all existing Alliances and Antagonists have been wiped.
  • Note from Lux: We looked and decided there were too many hugboxes in WoE; hence this change to shake things up a bit.
• [Changed] Alliances and Antagonists cannot be set whilst War of Emperium is active.
• [Changed] The way a Castle gains Economy has changed.
  • Henceforth, you no longer need to invest Zeny into your Castle to increase Economy.
  • Economy will now tick up automatically during War of Emperium, at a rate of 1 every 3 minutes.
  • This timer starts when WoE does, and will end when WoE does; you will not need to do anything to start the timer, as it is all automatic.
  • If a Castle is taken, the current timer on the Castle will re-start. Therefore, a Castle will gain 1 Economy every 3 minutes from when it was taken.
  • With this change, the maximum amount of Economy gained per WoE is 40. Hence it will take 5 War of Emperiums to fully economise a Castle.
  • A Castle will not gain Economy when it is not WoE for that Castle, i.e. a morning-WoE Castle will not gain Economy during evening-WoE.
  • A guild will still gain the same benefits from high Economy as before.
• [Changed] The rate that Economy and Defence is lost when a Castle is taken follows the following formula: max(1, x/5 - 5).
  • Defence may be increased as it was previously; the changes we have planned for Defence will come in a later maintenance, pending feedback on these changes.
• [Changed] Until further changes can take place, Okolnir will now require 130 Economy and 40 Defence - minimum - to enter.

Schedule

Eir

Day	Time	Castles Open	Other Information
Wednesday	19:00 - 20:00	See Other Information	Castles are rotated, meaning each WoE Day a different set of town's castles will be open. Rotating in order of Aldebaran > Geffen > Payon > Prontera and then starting again at Aldebaran.
Saturday	19:00 - 20:00	See Other Information	Castles are rotated, meaning each WoE Day a different set of town's castles will be open. Rotating in order of Aldebaran > Geffen > Payon > Prontera and then starting again at Aldebaran.

Loki

Day	Time	Castles Open	Other Information
Wednesday	07:00 - 09:00	Payon Sacred Altar Scarlet Palace Prontera Skoegul Swanhild Geffen Eeyolbriggar Bergel Aldebaran Wuerzburg Hohenschwangau Non Donate Hildr Sigrdrifa	None
Wednesday	19:00 - 21:00	Payon Bright Arbor Holy Shadow Bamboo Grove Hill Prontera Gondul Fadhgridh Kriemhild Geffen Repherion Yesnelph Merset Aldebaran Neushwanstein Nuenberg Rothenburg Non Donate Svava Brynhildr	None
Saturday	07:00 - 09:00	Payon Sacred Altar Scarlet Palace Prontera Skoegul Swanhild Geffen Eeyolbriggar Bergel Aldebaran Wuerzburg Hohenschwangau Non Donate Hildr Sigrdrifa	None
Saturday	19:00 - 21:00	Payon Bright Arbor Holy Shadow Bamboo Grove Hill Prontera Gondul Fadhgridh Kriemhild Geffen Repherion Yesnelph Merset Aldebaran Neushwanstein Nuenberg Rothenburg Non Donate Svava Brynhildr	None

Thor

Day	Time	Castles Open	Other Information
Wednesday	00:00 - 01:00	Aldebaran Neuschwanstein	None.
Wednesday	06:00 - 07:00	Geffen Repherion	None.
Wednesday	12:00 - 13:00	Payon Scarlet Palace	None.
Wednesday	18:00 - 19:00	Prontera Kriemhild	None.
Saturday	00:00 - 01:00	Aldebaran Neuschwanstein	None.
Saturday	06:00 - 07:00	Geffen Repherion	None.
Saturday	12:00 - 13:00	Payon Scarlet Palace	None.
Saturday	18:00 - 19:00	Prontera Kriemhild	None.

The Goal of WoE

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.

Guardian NPCs

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.

Rules of War of Emperium

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.

Rewards of Having a Castle

Guild Dungeons

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.

Loki Only

• 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. For more information about that area, see the relevant page(s).

Butler NPC

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:

Invest in Commerce Development	Invest to increase the castle's economy. Every 5 points on investment adds one new treasure box to the castle's master room. The type of treasure box alternates between the two available at that castle.
Invest in Defense	Increase your castle's defense by investing in it. Each point of defense investment will improve the Guardian HP and Emperium HP by 1000, and also improve the defense and attack power of the guardians by an unknown amount.
Hire Guardians	Hire a guardian to ease the task of guarding your guild's castle. The guild must have the Guardian Research Skill in order to do this.
Hire Kafra Employee	You can hire/fire Kafra NPCs inside the castle. Through the employed Kafra NPC, guild members can use the Kafra storage free of charge. The guild must have the Contract with Kafra skill in order to do this.
Enter Master Room	Enter the room where treasure boxes spawn.

Treasure Chests

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.

Modified WoE Mechanics

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 (Ninja) back 7 cells.

Disabled skills

• 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