About Eldering
After reaching age 100 on a creature, players can choose to become an Elder by either clicking "Become an Elder!" on the initial Elder prompt or by clicking "Become Elder" in the Creature Info/Creature Stats window by pressing K.
Prompt to Become an Elder
"My Creature" Creature Stats window displaying the Elder button at the bottom right area
The decision to become Elder is always available to players once reaching age 100 on any creature by going to the "My Creature" section of the Creature Stats window. Unlike legacy gameplay, the initial Elder prompt only appears once when the creature had already reached age 100 and will not repeatedly appear every time a creature with the proper age spawns. From the 10th January 2024 update onwards, upon choosing to become elder, a second decision arises, connected to the first, to choose an elder archetype (read respective section below).
Also, unlike legacy, once deciding to become an Elder, the player's creature will gradually inherit the Elder status and effects over a period equivalent to the time needed to grow from age 0 to age 100 (thus, having a total of age 200). While eldering, a creature will actually receive two different size changes: the first one is upon accepting to elder, and the second one is upon reaching age 200. It is not yet confirmed what is the size buff for each one of them, but the total seems to be around 10%. An eldering and eldered creature's growth bar turns from orange to purple, and now goes from 0-100 to 0-200 age.
The Elder status and effects cannot be removed later on, unless if the anti-logging penalties are triggered to reduce the creature's age. Logging can be used to reduce age below 100 to the point of reverting eldering. When done so, before the 10th January 2024 update, eldering did not automatically restart upon hitting age 100, being a good way to revert Eldering in a creature the player did not wish to Elder. However, after such update, it seems that eldering automatically restarts, at least if your creature venerated.
There were plans to allow some eldered creatures to have extra parts, but it is currently unknown if this is on hold, moved to venerated creatures only or if it has been phased out completely.
Veneration
Once a creature has reached age 200, they are given the option to venerate. Veneration develops in 5 distinct stages, each with different names indicating how far the process is. Once veneration begins, all stages are performed automatically in sequence, without needing confirmation to advance to the next one.
Veneration does the following:
- Allows pre-existing traits to be ascended, allowing for one ascension to a trait per stage. Ascended traits are basically regular traits with a slight extra boost, and are re-eligible for ascension, meaning a "Weight" trait could be upgraded to "Weight II" and then be re-ascended again to become "Weight III", with each ascension providing an even greater boost. Ascended traits do not remain ascended upon restarting a creature after death, only if a creature is revived.
- Increases stats over time, according to the elder archetype chosen.
- Increases the Revive Token cost needed to restore that specific creature from death, per stage (with a maximum of +3).
- For each stage of veneration reached, a venerated creature's size increases by 10%, a neutral factor which can sometimes become a blessing or a curse depending on the situation. When the veneration stage milestone happens, a bubble-like explosion effect engulfs the creature before performing the size change.
- Venerated creatures have their creature stats menu and slot framed with vine-growth-like decorations. These decorations, as well as growth bar colors, change depending on stage. When a creature has reached the growth milestone to become venerated, the growth bar will have its color changed into a gradient between the color for full elder, and the color for stage I venerated.
- At stage I (also known as "Elder", phase II), green decorations and bar.
- At stage II (also known as "Sage"), blue decorations and bar. Decorations also present a reflective metal/ice animated effect.
- At stage III (also known as "Master"), pink decorations and bar. Decorations also present a reflective metal/ice animated effect.
- At stage IV (also known as "Venerated"), orange-red decorations and bar. Decorations also present a reflective metal/ice animated effect.
- At stage V (also known as "Ancient"), shifting animated rainbow decorations, and red bar. As this stage is technically fully venerated, it does not take extra time and the bar will always be full.
- A venerating and venerated creature's growth bar goes from 0-200 to pure 0-100% percentages only, also indicating the stage the % represents.
By default, each veneration stage takes 6 hours to complete, 24 in total for full veneration. However, the actual growth time needed can be modified by several factors:
- A creature's veneration stat rate, inherent to a creature's species, affects how fast base veneration development speed goes.
- Completing a Region Missions set speeds up the process by providing an instant 8% extra progress to the current stage growth bar from Elder II to Master, and 3% from Veneration stage IV onwards.
Like with regular eldering, veneration can be reverted by triggering anti-logging penalties, but ascended traits remain and upon venerating again, veneration progress goes back to where it was before de-venerating.
Elder and Veneration Archetypes
From the 10th January 2024 update onwards, eldering and veneration are tied with an archetype selection from several that must be chosen when a creature decides to elder at age 100. Creatures that had eldered before the update are the only ones without an archetype, remaining regular "Elder" until they choose to venerate.
Different archetypes of eldering exist, with their own advantages, disadvantages, quirks and peculiarities, obtained for the most part gradually and rarely upon reaching certain milestones; and once an elder archetype path has been chosen, it will be followed during and after eldering and venerating, and cannot be normally changed through combat log measures.
Archetype-less
This "archetype" is extremely rare, it cannot be normally chosen since it technically is the lack of any archetypes, something possible only if a creature eldered or was eldering before the first elder archetype update. The only confirmed fact about this rare occurrence is that elders with this condition do not posses any extra archetype title, just labeled as "Adult" or "Elder". These creatures do not seem to have been granted with pre-10th January 2024 update Elder stats (+20% creature damage, +25% weight, -25% max stamina), with no special boosts nor debuffs applied (apart from the size change).
Devious
"A cunning elder that prioritizes speed and stamina recovery, sacrificing raw power for agility", cunning elders are best for flight or blitzkrieg situations, where the ability to outpace predators or other adversities is more paramount for survival than defenses or raw damage. During eldering, their growth bar archetype title refers to them as "Devious".
Pros:
- +7.5% Speed
- -7.5% Bite Cooldown
- +25% Stamina Regen
Cons:
- -20% Weight
- -15% Damage
Gentle
"A nurturing elder that favores regeneration and resistance effects", gentle elders are unique in the fact that there are no outright cons, providing a generic-round health recovery, ailment defence and endurance boost. During eldering, their growth bar archetype title refers to them as "Gentle".
Pros:
- +15% HP Regen
- +10% Stamina
- +10% Ailment Block
Powerful
"A powerful elder that favors strength and durability at the cost of regeneration efficiency", powerful elders are the elder archetype that resembles legacy and early recode eldering the most, providing better raw damage defense and raw damage boosts at the cost of recovering and acting slower. During eldering, their growth bar archetype title refers to them as "Powerful".
Pros:
- +20% Weight
- +15% Damage
Cons:
- -20% HP Regen
- -20% Stamina
- +5% Bite Cooldown
- -5% Speed
Trivia
- During the first week after Veneration was released, completing a Region Missions set sped up the process by providing an instant 15-17% extra progress to the current stage growth bar from Elder II to Master, and 4-7% from Veneration stage IV onwards, except on the Shadow Isle, where it was always 5-7%.
Gallery
