Rappelz

Infobox VG
title = Rappelz Epic 5 - Dragonic Age


developer = nFlavor
publisher = Gala-Net Inc
released = November 03, 2006
genre = Fantasy MMORPG
modes = Multiplayer
platforms = Windows
media = Download (1.93 GB client) cite web |author =| title=Client Download Page | publisher= Rappelz Official Site| url=http://rappelz.gpotato.com/download/index.php| accessdate=2008-03-10]
requirements = Minimum
* Intel Pentium III 800 MHz
* 512 MB RAM
* DirectX 9.0c
* 128 MB 3D Accelerated Graphics Card
* 4 GB Hard Drive Space (fully patched)

Recommended
* Intel Pentium IV 2 GHz
* 1024 MB RAM
* DirectX 9.0c
* 128 MB 3D Accelerated Graphics Card
* 4 GB Hard Drive Space (fully patched) cite web |author =| title=Client Download Page | publisher= Rappelz Official Site| url=http://rappelz.gpotato.com/download/index.php| accessdate=2008-03-10]
ratings = None
input = Keyboard, Mouse

"Rappelz" is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game. The game is developed by the Korean company nFlavor, and published by the Californian company Gala-Net Inc. Rappelz is one of a series of MMORPGs that have arisen in recent years that are free-to-play, with revenue for the game being gained through sale of special items in "Cash Shops". In general, these games (including popular titles like Rappelz, Silk Roads Online, and others) offer a limited scale version of the scope and game experience of larger subscription games like World of Warcraft, with less general content (new dungeons, items, quests, etc).

Rappelz is set in a medieval fantasy world, dominated by three races: the Deva, who represent light, the Asura, who represent darkness, and the Gaia, humans that possess an affinity with nature. [cite web |author =| title= Scenario | publisher=Rappelz Official Site | year=2007 | url=http://rappelz.gpotato.com/gameguide/scenario.php| accessdate=2007-11-10]

Each major installment of the game is referred to as an "Epic", similar to Lineage II's "Chronicles". The current installment is called "Epic 5: Dragonic Age".

Versions

There are currently several different versions of the game: [http://rappelz.com Korean] , [http://rappelz.gpotato.jp Japanese] , [http://rappelz.gpotato.com US (global)] , [http://fr.rappelz.gpotato.eu/Forum/?FCD=RAPPELZ_FR_N001 French] , [http://de.rappelz.gpotato.eu/Forum/?FCD=RAPPELZ_DE_N001 German] , [http://fy.lqn.cn Chinese] , [http://rappelz.i-cable.com Hong Kong] , [http://rappelz.omg.com.tw Taiwanese] , [http://www.rzonline.ru/ Russian] . Versions can differ dramatically. For example, the US version added a restrictive logout timer on 22nd Jan 2008 which disables users from logging out for 10 seconds while not in a non-PvP area, such as a town (this feature has been disabled for the time being). Korean and Japanese versions have a similar timer; however, it only applies when in player-kill mode.

French Version

The French version of Rappelz started its beta on January 30, 2008. [cite web | url = http://fr.rappelz.gpotato.eu/Forum/Index.aspx?FCD=RAPPELZ_FR_N001&MODE=VT&TNO=1 | accessdate = 2008-03-22 | title = Official French Website] It was closed again on February 11, 2008, after which on February 14, 2008 the French Rappelz version went live. [cite web | url = http://fr.rappelz.gpotato.eu/Forum/Index.aspx?FCD=RAPPELZ_FR_N001&MODE=VT&TNO=4 | accessdate = 2008-03-22 | title = Official French Website] The live version opened with server Pyroxia. On March 13, 2008, a second server Kentauros was opened. [cite web | url = http://fr.rappelz.gpotato.eu/Forum/Index.aspx?FCD=RAPPELZ_FR_N001&MODE=VT&TNO=11 | accessdate = 2008-03-22 | title = Official French Website]

German Version

The German version of Rappelz started its beta on January 30, 2008. [cite web | url = http://de.rappelz.gpotato.eu/Forum/Index.aspx?FCD=RAPPELZ_DE_N001&MODE=VT&TNO=2 | accessdate = 2008-03-22 | title = Official German Website] On February 14, 2008 the German Rappelz version went live. [cite web | url = http://de.rappelz.gpotato.eu/Forum/Index.aspx?FCD=RAPPELZ_DE_N001&MODE=VT&TNO=7 | accessdate = 2008-03-22 | title = Official German Website] The live version opened with server Horus. On March 13, 2008, a second server Bastet was opened. [cite web | url = http://de.rappelz.gpotato.eu/Forum/Index.aspx?FCD=RAPPELZ_DE_N001&MODE=VT&TNO=14 | accessdate = 2008-03-22 | title = Official German Website]

History

The Open Beta version of Rappelz launched on October 2, 2006, [cite web|url=http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/rappelz/index.html|accessdate=2007-11-18|title=Gamespot Rappelz summary page] with two separate servers available: "Tortus" , the normal PvE server, and "Pantera", the more PvP/PK-oriented server. Those who had previously downloaded the Closed Beta version of Rappelz were not required to re-download the Rappelz client to play in Open Beta; however, extensive automatic patching was done by the client before Closed Beta players could enter Open Beta. Closed Beta ended on September 26, 2006. Closed-beta characters were deleted at the beginning of Open Beta; however, characters created during Open Beta were not deleted prior to the game's release. Open Beta ended with the official release of the game on November 03, 2006.

There are currently seven servers in service namely, "Bahamut", "Tortus", "Yeti", "Lydian" and "Pantera (PVP).", "Salamander" and the newest (opened on August 14th 2007) - "Tanda", named after the game's head Game Master.Fact|date=October 2007 The US test server for Epic 4 testing was called "Siren".

Epic 4: Revolution

Rappelz Epic IV was released on July 27, 2007. The expansion included a complete skill revamp, changes to the pet system, the inclusion of a second job class, and many small tweaks to the system and graphics. However, the majority of bugs and issues reported in Epic III were not resolved and Epic IV introduced many new bugs including missing skills, broken skills and items/ descriptions not translated from original Korean.

Epic 5: Dragonic Age

Epic 5 will consist of 2 parts. The first part is currently live in the Korean, European (Germany and French languages) and Hong Kong regions. The English version was the last region to go live on August 12, 2008. Part 1 will include:cite web|url=http://rappelz-forum.gpotato.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=796743|title=Post by Rappelz GM tanda in the official forums]
* Two new pets will be added: the Cerberus and the White Dragon
* Re-working of pet groups with additional armor/weapon stat percentage penalties applied to lower level and easier to obtain pets.
* Simplification of pet skills where each pet is effectively "cookie cut" to a very large extent.
* Pets will lose the ability to target buff other pets and instead can cast a buff that applies to owner and pet only.
* Pets will gain extra stats each level.
* One new dungeon will be added with one instance (previously all dungeons had two instances). The mobs will be harder to kill than previous dungeon mobs and the suggested level limit for the new dungeon is 120+.
* New armors, weapons, cloaks and helmets
* Decorative pets will be added and sold via the cash shop. They do not (yet) have a function in the game.
* Roaming Guards will appear around the towns. Their function is to attack any player-killers in town and (supposedly) monsters.

Part 2 is scheduled for release to the Korean test server in August. Part 2 is still in development and features are subject to change. Features planned are:
* Two new dungeons will be added.
* A new hunting area (presumed for level 150+ characters)
* Level limit will be raised to 170.
* New equipment (armor and weapons)
* A new mount, the Qilin.
* Decorative pets might get some function in the game.
* Character classes will be rebalanced. Based on current information this is largely based around re-working base damage versus skill damage and fixing broken skills rather than an overhaul of the classes.

The Story

According to the game's backstory available [http://rappelz.gpotato.com/gameguide/scenario.php on gpotato's site] , the oldest race is the Gaia, and to assist them, the gods of Creation and Extinction brought two more races into the world. They were the Deva who represented the Light and the Asura who represented the Darkness. With this, there was a period of peace and stability in the world.

As the ages passed by, there was one among the Gaia who called herself "The Witch". Over time, she grew in tremendous power and with a ruthless ambition, rallied the people of Gaia to rebel against the world.

Not all the people of Gaia heeded this call, however, and the world was thrown into chaos. It was only through the combined efforts of the three races of Deva, Asura, and Gaia that "The Witch" was finally captured and burnt alive. It was a victorious outcome of a unity between the three races.

Now at the present time, the three races continue to co-exist with each other in the world of Rappelz but dark rumors have surfaced about the second coming of "The Witch" and the return of her terrible forces.

The backstory does not play a substantial role in the game itself.

Game Features

Action Icons

Rappelz optionally provides the use of icons for actions, allowing them to be assigned to a hotkey. Some other actions may also be used through the use of icons (those available in the control window [cite web |author =| title=Beginner's Guide: Controls | publisher= Rappelz Official Site| url=http://rappelz.gpotato.com/gameguide/begin_guide_control.php| accessdate=] ) such as toggling PVP. Emotes, traditionally used through the chat window via commands using the syntax /command, are optionally available through hotkey usage. [cite web |author =| title=Player's Guide | publisher= Rappelz Official Site| url=http://rappelz.gpotato.com/gameguide/player_guide.php| accessdate=]

Lak and Chips

A Lak is magical energy from monsters and can be obtained by defeating monsters while wearing the appropriate necklace. This necklace will be available fairly early in the game. Gathered Lak can be traded at any Lak Trader, for either chips or in-game currency: rupees. Lak Traders also provide the option to buy chips with rupees. However, it is more cost-efficient to obtain chips via Lak.cite web |author =| title=Starting Tips and Information | publisher= Rappelz Official Forum| year=2006 | url=http://rappelz-forum.gpotato.com/viewtopic.php?t=767| accessdate=2008-03-10]

There are three types of chips: Force Chips, Soul Chips and Luna Chips. These chips are items that characters can use to significantly affect a battle by increasing the amount of damage the target takes for a limited amount of time. They come in different ranks which allow different levels of users to use chips while not overpowering them. Force Chips increase physical damage (melee and ranged for example), while Soul Chips increase the amount of magical damage a 'chipped' monster takes.cite web|url=http://rappelz-forum.gpotato.com/viewtopic.php?t=767|title=GPotato Forum Topic: Starting Tips and Information|date=2008-03-10]

Luna Chips are similar to Force Chips and Soul Chips combined. Luna Chips do not 'stack' with Force or Soul Chips, and casting a Luna Chip will cancel the effect of the Force or Soul Chip. Likewise, casting a Force or Soul Chip on a target previously chipped with Luna Chip, will cancel the effect of the Luna Chip.

Items and Equipment

Equipment in the game have their own level and can level up by means of upgrading. Items that are able to do this display a section at the bottom of their status window showing the upgraded status effects, allowing players to know ahead of time the quality of the equipment. By visiting a Blacksmith, which is available in every town, players are able to upgrade their currently equipped (and upgradeable) equipment for a fee.

In addition, combinations of equipment with the appropriate enchantment cubes can further increase its potency, and as is the case with weapons, even be reflected graphically through a glow effect. This is called 'enchanting' an item. A weak weapon or armour can be formed into a stronger item without having to sell it and buy a new one.cite web|url=http://rappelz-forum.gpotato.com/viewtopic.php?t=767|title=GPotato Forum Topic: Starting Tips and Information|date=2008-03-10] [cite web|url=http://rappelz.gpotato.com/gameguide/player_guide_enhancement.php|title=Player's Guide: Enhancement|date=|publisher= Rappelz Official Forum] This can also substantially increase both the item's in-game market value. The only non-equipment item that can be enchanted is the skill card.

Items can also be improved by 'socketing' Soul Stones. This is done by visiting a Soulcrafter. Soul Stones are drop items that cannot be bought from any NPC. When socketed, they will increase one of the primary stats of one's character, if three conditions are met: the equipment with the Soul Stone is equipped, the Soul Stone's level is lower than or equals the character's level, and the Soul Power of the equipment is charged. Soul Power can be charged at the Soulcrafter of each town, and will be paid in Lak. Most equipment has two sockets for Soul Stones, however two-handed weapons have four.

The Abyss

Rappelz sets aside an area where players that have failed to follow the rules will be placed. However, normal players can get there, usually by accident, by attacking an auto-trap. Auto-traps are used to catch bots. If a player attacks an auto-trap for 5 sec. or more, a condition called wrath is placed on them at lv. 9. If a player attacks an auto-trap for 30 sec wrath at lv 11 will be placed upon them and they will be thrown into the abyss. Wrath lowers every stat down drastically; usually 110% less than normal. A player can only leave the abyss by e-mailing Rappelz's customer service. Auto-traps have since been removed from the game (early epic 3) and replaced with bot catching animals spread through-out the land, these include things like pigs, rabbits, moose and more.

Pet System

One of Rappelz's defining features is its Pet system. Pets are creatures that adventure alongside players, aiding them in battle. They come in many varieties, and can be made to fulfill numerous roles. Additionally, pets have many of the properties of player characters: they gain levels alongside their owners, learn different skills, and can make use of equipment.

Pets can be used by all races and classes: the only requirement being two skills, Summon Creature and Creature Control, which are available early in the game. The basic classes (Rogue, Guide and Stepper) and fighter classes have little emphasis on creatures through the availability of creature affecting skills while the others, especially summoner classes (Breeder, Spell Singer and Sorcerer) can affect creatures more greatly.

Pets are attained by taming a pet while having the appropriate card for that pet in the player's inventory. The three most basic pet cards can be bought in any town, while other cards are only found from defeated monsters. Once tamed, pets can be summoned and banished at will by their owners.

Upon reaching a certain level, pets can "evolve" to a different type. A pet evolves twice during its lifetime. Additionally, pets can learn skills at higher levels that allow them to be used as equipment, augmenting their owner's power. There is also a feature known as "overbreeding" which requires a somewhat longer time to achieve. Overbreeding grants pets more job points and stats than non-overbred pets. Overbreeding begins after a pet can evolve but not allowing the city tamer to evolve it.

Current Pets

The [http://rappelz.gpotato.com/download/RappelzReferenceGuide-v095.pdf Rappelz Reference Guide] lists the pets in order of taming chance, using tiers. As of Epic 4, pets from tiers 1 through 3 are considered Basic, and tier 4 pets are considered Rare. Pet cards for pets from tier 1 can be purchased from NPCs, pet cards for tiers 2 through 4 are drop-only items (though sometimes they do appear in the Cash Shop as bonus items on special packages). tier 1, 2 and 3 are all listed as "basic" on their pet cards, however different drop rates and tame rates may put them into different tiers as shown below.

Tier 1 (Basic):
*Pantera: A muscular cat-like creature. It focuses on speed and physical attack.
*Poultry: A red chicken-like creature. It focuses on speed and magic.
*Tortus: A giant tortoise-like creature. It focuses on defense and high hp.

Tier 2 ("Common"):
*Blue Pixie: A small fairy that glows blue. It has cleric-like healing abilities.
*Orc: A Orc-like creature with a club. It is a very popular pet due to its high attack and defense.
*Red Pixie: A small fairy that glows red. It has very powerful magic attack abilities and is known as a great damage-dealing pet.
*Siren: A beautiful humanoid female. It has abilities to debuff and trap enemies.
*Skeleton: A skeleton warrior. Famed as a highly evasive pet, it has fast physical attacks and extraordinary damage-dealing capabilities.
*Yeti: A white yeti-like creature with a mask. It is a favorite of defensive players because it has the highest vitality, hp, and physical defense out of every similar pet.

Tier 3 ("Un-Common"):
*Hawkman: A bird/human hybrid resembling an avian. Its skills and abilities focus on high physical attack and high physical defense.
*Salamander: A red bipedal fire-based lizard. Its skills and abilities are based around high damage dealing potential in both magical and physical areas.

Tier 4 (Rare):
*Angel: An angel-like creature with wings. It focuses on healing with great defensive potential, in contrast to the blue pixie which has very little physical defense.
*Kentauros: A centaur equipped with a spear. Its strength lies in enormous physical attacks and fantastic damage-dealing potential.
*Cerberus: A three-headed dog-like creature. It focuses on extremely powerful physical attacks and high attack speed.

Tier 5 (Unique):
*White Dragon: An ice-themed dragon creature. It is capable of dealing the most damage with its ice magic attacks out of any pet and has a huge defense, making it the most sought after pet in the game. Unfortunately, it is nearly unattainable. As of yet, no-one but the GM's have this pet.

The following pets have been theorized and are rumored to be released in the future:Lydian, Ent, Unicorn, Harpy, Astarot, Windy Pixie and the Forest Pixie

Races

Each of the three races in Rappelz has three classes: a warrior class, a magician class, and a summoner class whose abilities center around their pets.cite web |author =| title=Classes Overview | publisher= Alizarin HQ| year=2007 | url=http://rappelz.alizarinhq.com/class/| accessdate=2007-11-10] Summoner classes typically have skills to support their pet as well as skills borrowed from both other classes for their respective race. Similar to Ragnarok Online, characters begin as a basic class with limited skills. There are no gender limitations on classes, but each race has its own classes and skill sets. Players are free to adventure anywhere in the game world regardless of race.

Classes and Levels

Rappelz features a variety of classes, most of which can be unlocked through attaining a certain character level and job level. Character levels are attained in the traditional way, by defeating mobs and gaining experience points. Besides experience points, defeating mobs also grants the player job points. Job points are required to obtain and level up the character's skills, but also to increase their job level. Most skills require a minimum job level to be unlocked.cite web |author =| title= Classes | publisher= Alizarin HQ| year=2007 | url=http://rappelz.alizarinhq.com/class/| accessdate=2008-03-07]

As of Epic 4, there are three class categories: starting class, first job class and second job class. After attaining level 10 and job level 10, characters can choose one of the first job specialized classes. At level 50 and job level 40, the second job class can be chosen. For example, the Gaia warrior class, Fighter, can choose between Champion, a melee-oriented battler, or an Archer, who focuses on bow skills. All classes of any race share a single "racial skill" in Epic 4, which grows in power with each class increase. When advancing a character's job class, the job level is reset.Fact|date=March 2008

It is also possible to 'overbreed' your character. This means the character is not advanced to a second job class when it reaches level 50, job level 40. Instead, job points are collected to bring the job level up to level 50 as well, before further specializing. Overbreeding gives a character a small bonus to its statistics. Opinions vary on whether overbreeding is worth the amount of time and job points spent.Fact|date=March 2008

Deva

The Deva are a light-based race. They also have water- and earth-based skills. They are primarily defense-oriented, focusing on the powers of healing and buffing. Their racial skill is "Minor Healing", which restores HP to the caster.

*Guide - The Guide is the starting class for the Deva. The basic skills Smite and Minor Healing are learned by this class.
**Holy Warrior - Holy Warriors are the game's primary tank class. They have the highest natural health and defense of the first jobs. They have various skills to force monsters to attack them instead of other party members (most notably the skill Provoke). In addition, they have multiple debuffing abilities, which are continued in the two advanced job versions of this class.
***Soldier - The Soldier focuses on the offensive aspect of Holy Warriors. They get additional damage-dealing skills as well as the only two holy warrior skills of non-light element.
***Knight - The Knight focuses on the defensive aspect of Holy Warriors. Focusing on their prowess with a shield, they have additional skills for provoking enemies and the greatest natural defense in the game.
**Cleric - The Cleric is the main healer/buffer of Rappelz. They have powerful healing spells as well as strong player buffs. They also have several attack and debuff spells.
***Priest - Priests expand on the Cleric's partying ability. They get extensions on all heals level cap, as well as many "mass buffs" that can affect a whole party. However, many of these buffs are considered broken and worthless because they do not stack with standard buffs, and are nowhere near as strong.
***Bishop - The Bishop expands on a cleric's offensive casting ability. They get no new healing spells, and have the max level on some of the Cleric spells raised. They make up for it in several powerful debuffs and disable spells.
**Breeder - The Breeder is Deva's summoner. Breeders have more defense oriented buffs and focus on raising and healing their creatures; they have limited light based damage skills also.
***Soul Breeder - The second job class of breeders mainly extends their first job skills further.

Gaia

The Gaia are a neutral human race who generally have mix of defensive and offensive skills. Their skills revolve around manipulating the forces of nature. Unlike the Deva and Asura, they do not have a race-specific element, but they have skills utilizing all four "natural" elements (water, earth, wind, and fire). Their racial skill is "Mental Concentration", which increases their critical attack for a short time.

*Rogue - The Rogue is the starting class for Gaia. The basic skills Smite and Mental Concentration are learned by this class.
**Fighter - The Fighter is the warrior class of the Gaia. Fighters focus on damage skills with two-handed axes, dual-wielded axes, or longbows.
***Champion- The Champion class is the continuation of the melee fighter path. They focus on melee skills.
***Archer - The Archer is the continuation of the longbow fighter path. They focus on various bow damage skills as well as trapping skills. They also have the unique ability to detect hidden enemies (assassins are currently the only character in the game that can hide).
**Kahuna - The Kahuna is a melee/caster hybrid class. Their magical attack spells are mostly focused on status effects and often have long re-use times. Their melee damage ability is greater than that of other magicians. They possess a heal-over-time spell as well as several buffs; however, the heal and buff skills are not as powerful as their Cleric counterparts, but are stackable (buffs from Kahunas and Clerics are able to be in effect simultaneously).
***Battle Kahuna - The Battle Kahuna furthers the Kahuna's melee and damage abilities. They have additional attack skills as well as higher levels of passive attack skills (their base damage is higher).
***Druid - The Druid focuses on the support aspect of the Kahuna class. They have more spells for disabling opponents as well as greater healing ability.
**Spell Singer - The Spell Singer is the Gaia pet class. The Spell Singer focuses on increasing the abilities of both the pet and the player, with the summoner itself becoming considerably formidable at melee upon learning to dual wield one-handed axes. It is the only class in the game which lacks a self healing ability but it can heal its pet.
***Evoker - The Evoker furthers the Spell Singer's abilities.

Asura

The Asura are the dark-element race of Rappelz. They also possess fire- and wind-based skills. They are primarily an offense-oriented race. They have lower health and defense than the other two races, but they also have greater evasion. Their racial skill is "Deep Evasion", which increases their evasive ability for a short time.

*Stepper - The Stepper is the starting class for the Asura. The basic skills Smite and Deep Evasion are learned by this class.
**Strider - The Strider is an assassin-like class that uses high evasion and attack speed, hitting fast but not particularly strong. They can specialize in blades (swords or dirks) or crossbow.
***Assassin - The Assassin specializes in twin dirks or swords, and have a large range of offensive melee skills and stealth skills to hide from their enemies.
***Shadow Hunter - The Shadow Hunter is the second job class of Striders which specializes in crossbows. They have many ranged skills and debuffing abilities.
**Dark Magician - The Dark Magician uses spells that drain and weaken the enemy. They have many offensive spells and debuffs.
***Chaos Magician - The Chaos Magician is the second job class of Dark Magicians which concentrates on high damage spells, but has a low defense against physical attacks.
***Warlock - The Warlock is the second job class which concentrates more on debuffs and curse magic. This makes them more party-orientated because they have less attack power on their own than the Chaos Magician.
**Sorcerer - The Sorcerer focuses on offense and absolute control of their pets. Sorcerers can exchange HP with their pets and leech their pets' strength.
***Battle Summoner - The Battle Summoner is an extension of the sorcerer. They have offensive potential in both melee and magic, and more offensive buffs for their pets.

Geography

The world of Rappelz consists of a large island, which is the mainland, and a smaller one, which is called Trainee's Island. The mainland is divided into several areas, such as Crystal Valley, Lizardman Habitat, Pyre Site and Forgotten Portal. These areas harbour monsters of generally similar levels, with few exceptions, like bosses. There are also dungeons to be found, in which monsters are stronger, and experience and job point rewards are higher.

By default, any area is "player-kill area". This means that battle can be held, both between player characters and monsters (mobs), and player characters amongst each other (PK/PvP or dueling). Some small areas exist which are "non-player-kill areas". These are the towns Katan, Horizon, Laksy and the city Rondo. It is not possible to hold battle within these areas.

Each town holds a number of NPCs with different services. These services include a Weapon Trader, Armour Trader, Teleporter, Lak Trader, Adventure Guide, Job Supporter and Merchant. Every town provides most services, although some services are offered by more than one NPC in Rondo. Some NPCs can be found outside the town areas. These only function as quest NPCs in most cases.

Trainee's Island

Trainee's Island is the starting place of any player character. It is a place set up with NPCs and quests as a means of tutorial, as well as reaching a character level upon which the player's character becomes viable in the mainland. Once a character reaches level 10 and completed the class transfer quest, it is possible to visit a Teleporter and transport towards the home town for that character's race. Once level 15 is reached, the character is unable to teleport back to Trainee's Island except for one exception. A player under level 15 can use a Feather of Summon to bring an higher level player to Trainee's Island.

Home Towns

There are three home towns, one for each race:
* Horizon:Home town for the Gaian race. Horizon is located towards the east of the mainland, amidst grassy plains and a hillside. Horizon is usually more crowded than Laksy or Katan due to it being located relatively close to the two lower-level dungeons Relics of Arid Moonlight and Lost Mines.
* Laksy:Home town for the Devan race. It is a floating town off the Rappelz map that can be reached by visiting the Laksy Anchor. Laksy Anchor is located in the north of the mainland, it being a small island surrounded by and connected to the mainland by a set of bridges.
* Katan:Home town for the Asuran race. It is set in a dark and gloomy environment in the south of the mainland, located between a formation of mountains.

Rondo

Rondo is a large square city that looks like a castle. It is located at a central position in the mainland, allowing for relatively fast access to several of the dungeons and main areas. Rondo is regarded as a home town for those who have reached character level 50.

Hidden Village

Hidden Village is a place that's not on the Rappelz map. It can only be reached by purchasing a Hidden Village Ticket in the Cash Shop, and visiting a Hidden Village Teleporter in any of the other towns. Hidden Village is a place where items, such as equipment, can be bought with a discount. Some items can only be bought here .

Dungeon System

Dungeons are isolated places reached through portals. The monsters in dungeons are stronger than normal monsters with the same level, but the experience and job point reward for killing one is also higher. There are also items that can only be obtained as a dungeon drop. Dungeons are usually entered as a party, or dungeon party. Dungeon parties consist of a variety of classes, most including a healer/buffer, a tank, and multiple damage dealers. This enables the party to efficiently kill monsters and gain experience fast. Parties in Rappelz may contain up to 8 players. Dungeons are not instanced, meaning players will be able to interact with other characters and parties inside the dungeon. This also allows for kill-stealing (attacking a monster that was first attacked by another character outside their party, with the intent to 'steal' it away from them and/or receive a portion of the experience gain), and 'training' (pulling a large number of monsters towards another character or party, usually with the intent to have the 'train' of monsters attack them instead, often resulting in the 'trained' party dying).

Dungeon Raid

Rappelz has a feature in place that allows for guilds to 'own' a dungeon. Ownership of a dungeon brings certain advantages, such as a Lak and rupee 'tax' for characters using the dungeon.Fact|date=March 2008 Acquiring ownership of a dungeon requires two steps. First a Dungeon Raid should be performed. Dungeon Raid is also called Time Attack, and consists of killing the two bosses that guard the specific dungeon. For example, for Relics of Arid Moonlight, these bosses are Oforia and Abhuva. During the Dungeon Raid, the dungeon is instanced, meaning no other player characters will be encountered.

Dungeons Siege

If the raid succeeds, and manages to kill the bosses in the shortest amount of time compared to Dungeon Raids from others, the guild that performed the raid will move on to attempt a Dungeon Siege. Dungeon Sieges are held once a week on a set time. A Dungeon Siege is a war between a defending guild, the guild currently owning the dungeon, and the attacking guild, the guild who performed the Dungeon Raid. If the siege succeeds, ownership of the dungeon is transferred to the attacking guild. During the Dungeon Siege, the dungeon is instanced, meaning no other player characters will be encountered (with the exception of the opponent parties in the Siege).

Current Dungeons

There are currently four different dungeons available:
* Relics of Arid Moonlight
** Location: west of Horizon and south of Rondo.
** Recommended character level: 25 to 50.
** Dungeon bosses: Oforia and Abhuva.
* Lost Mines
** Location: north of Horizon and east of Rondo.
** Recommended character level: 45 to 65.
** Dungeon bosses: Primal Scream and Taranida.
* Crystal Valley
** Location: west of Rondo.
** Recommended character level: 65 to 80.
** Dungeon bosses: Crustalino and Likirius.
* Palmir Plateau
** Location: north of Rondo and south of Laksy Anchor.
** Recommended character level: 80 to 110.
** Dungeon bosses: Soulseeker and Takin.
* The Temple of Ancients
** Location: north-west of Rondo
** Recommended character level: 120 to 150.
** Dungeon bosses: Betreyal

Guilds

Rappelz features a simple guild system, where any player above level 20 can register a guild at a Guild Official (NPC) in the major towns. Guilds offer players a group to play with. Up to five guilds can also come together to form an alliance. Players cannot player-kill another guild member or alliance member.

A character who has just left a guild cannot join or create a guild within 7 days. this was implemented to avoid guild-hopping.

A guild leader cannot delete the character without first disbanding the guild.*or changing guild master*

An alliance owning a dungeon cannot add any other guild to the alliance.

In-game administrators

There used to be several different versions of in-game administrators: the Game Masters, the Volunteer Game Guides and the Volunteer Quality Assurance.Fact|date=November 2007 However, the latter two have been removed due to abuse, leaving only the Game Masters.

Rappelz's Game Masters are responsible for the day-to-day administration of the game, including tasks such as planning and running of events, bug tracking, testing, solving customer service issues, and answering player queries.

GM's can be recognized by their [GM] name tag, glowing aura, orange chat text and being able to buff themselves with higher buffs than is possible to obtain in the game.

Technical issues

Some users have encountered problems with the game's patching system. The patching process can freeze, which requires the user to restart the patching process from the beginning (or disable then re-enable network connection) [cite web | url=http://rappelz-forum.gpotato.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=629653 |title=Rappelz Official Forum |accessdate=2008-03-18 |author=iocanepowder|year=2007] . Some users have experienced problems with the patcher failing to properly patch the gameFact|date=November 2007. The affected players may then be sent to the Abyss by the game's cheat-detection system.

The game also has fairly high (as of 2006) [http://rappelz.gpotato.com/download/index.php minimum system requirements] , similar to other games such as World of Warcraft (see [http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/faq/technology.html WoW's system requirements] for comparison). Framerate issues can occur, especially in highly-populated areas such as towns. Game updates to alleviate this problem have been implemented [cite web | url=http://rappelz-forum.gpotato.com/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=472603 |title=Rappelz Patch Notes |accessdate=2007-12-06 |author=Tanda] .

The game client has reportedly suffered from poor memory management [cite web | url=http://www.rappelzhq.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=415 |title=Rappelz HQ: Memory Leak? |accessdate=2008-03-18 |author=|year=2007] . After an extended period of play, the game could develop graphical slowdown (lag), which would persist until the user restarted the game. The game has also been criticized for the time taken for the game client to release resources after closing the gameFact|date=August 2007. Recent updates have reduced the impact of these problemsFact|date=November 2007, but resource release problems still persist. Some users have claimed that the problem is a memory leak [cite web | url=http://rappelz.mmosite.com/others/aboutlag.shtml |title=MMOSite |accessdate=2008-03-18 |author=|year=2006] [cite web | url=http://forum.alizarinhq.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=479 |title=AlizarinHQ: BSOD blue screen of death |accessdate=2008-03-18 |author=|year=2007] ; however, there has been no evidence provided for this argument.

User have experienced server instability, for which the logout timer has been found responsible. Because of this, the logout timer has been temporarily disabled. [cite web|url=http://rappelz.gpotato.com/news/index.php|year=2008|accessdate=2008-03-12|publisher=Rappelz Official Website|title=Current News]

Rappelz O.S.T.

Like many other MMORPGs, Rappelz has its own soundtrack. It does not, however, feature all of the music which is played in-game. The "Rappelz O.S.T." is available free in MP3 format on the [http://www.rappelz.com/download/ost.aspx Korean Rappelz website] .

# "Rappelz" – 2:52
#* The main music of the game
# "Pioneer of the Distorted Land" – 2:08
#* Music played on Trainee island"
# "An Epic of the Absolute Creature" – 2:08
#* Music played on the Horizon login screen (first)
#* Music is also used in gPotato's "Honor Vs Wildseven Trailer"
# "Breeze of Old Forest" – 2:51
# "Morning Breaks of Rondo" – 2:38
#* Music featured in the login screen of the beta.
# "Crystal Mountain" – 2:31
#* Music played on the night Rondo login screen (second)
#* Music is also used in gPotato's "Rappelz's Official Trailer"
# "Sleeping Ruin in the Bleak Land" – 3:01
#* Music played on the Laksy login screen (third)
# "Mythical Desert" – 2:50
# "Dusk Kahthan" – 2:44
#* Music played in the Asuran capital city of Asura Katan

Songs 7,8 and 9 were performed by Studio EIM.

References

External links

;Official websites
* [http://rappelz.gpotato.com/ Rappelz English Website]
* [http://www.rappelz.com/download/ost.aspx Rappelz Original Soundtrack]
* [http://www.fangaming.com/fileinfo.php?fileid=1824 Rappelz Epic IV Client download at FanGaming]

;Information for players
*The - English articles on game play and game systems.