LGC Spotlight – War Robots

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Check Out This Fantastic, Free-to-Play, War Machine Epic

I’ve never been so surprised to find something new from a random YouTube advert. To be honest the advert showed content I’ve yet to see, but this little gem has had me playing until the early hours of the morning, without even knowing it!

Here Are the Details…

War Robots (previously titled Walking War Robots) is mobile app game developed and published by the game developer, Pixonic. It is also available for the PC, on the GameCenter platform (My.GAMES), and STEAM.

In this game, players pilot giant robots (Mechs) in either 6 vs 6, or 6 player free-for-all matches. Battles take place on random detailed maps, where players compete for either beacon control or total destruction of the enemy, in the form of Team Deathmatch, within a time limit of 10 minutes.

Destroy enemy robots, capture all the beacons, and upgrade your weapons to increase your battle robot’s combat strength, speed and durability. Prove yourself in each map and use different strategies and tactics to emerge victorious in battle.

There are over 50 unique robots, and a plethora of weapons and upgrades which allow for people to decide on their own build. Later on in the game, players will have access to titans – Humungous war machines that decimate anything left on the battlefield.

The one reason I wanted to shine a spotlight on this game is that, even though the game has microtransactions, and could fall victim to putting off Free-to-Play (F2P) players, if they were pitted against “whales”, I have not spent a penny and the action is rewarding and feels fair. Despite some people having access to larger machines, it doesn’t feel like I’ve ever been put in a battle where I can’t have a good fight and enjoy myself. I fully intend on starting a small clan on this, as soon as I get the last of the currency I need.

Lox – Owner of only 4 low-level mechs!

Eight years ago, War Robots was released. Today, the project is all grown up and still gaining popularity. The game has more than 200 million registered players, with a third of active players being with us for more than two  years. Platforms also give global features regularly. Few mobile projects can claim such a lifetime. It is a result of the hard work of our team and its desire to find new growth points.

During the last year, we completed our massive task of War Robots remastered version with the release of HD graphics and a content Delivery System that made it easier for players to download updates. We created tons of new content and structured it. And we continue to support our community and constantly communicate with the players.

April 14, 2022 – Pixonic
Click to check out the official website

Diablo Immortal – How to Improve Your Combat Rating (CR)

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Check Out this Quick Guide for Increasing Your CR

Important: This quick guide has been written for those who already know the base mechanics of Diablo Immortal. If you are a brand new player, then there will be countless other guides which will include more basic information about how the game works. Published 29th July 2022.

In Diablo Immortal, a character’s ability to fight on any difficulty level is determined by their Combat Rating, or “CR” for short. This single statistic is formulated from things like:

  • Equipped Gear & Upgrade Level;
  • Socketed Normal and Legendary Gems;
  • Your Helliquary Level;
  • Upgrades to the Legacy of the Horadrim Vessels [Click to visit my guide on this]
  • Other Things That Can Help You… (Listed at the bottom)

This short guide will give you some information about the kind of tasks/activities you can do to increase your CR at a good rate, but there may be more stuff you can do. I am not an expert, just a player. I’ve written this as a response to more than one person asking in our Discord how they can improve their CR.

Before I go on, there is one important point I have to make:

Be Patient – It is not always a quick process to upgrade gear/gems and you will often hit slumps where you may only make gains of just a few CR points a day, and other times where you could add several hundred. It is unpredictable (unless you’re a whale who buys legendary crests and farms rifts!)

Equipped Gear

The goal of any player wanting to increase their CR, as quickly as possible, is to pick up legendary items for all the equipment slots. The game is designed to allow for legendary gear to be dropped by almost all creatures, chests and mission/quest rewards, BUT you can improve your chances by doing the following activities:

Dungeons:
This is one of the best ways to collect legendary gear. It is very common for the end boss of a dungeon to drop legendary gear, including Set Pieces. With a good party, or high level chars running you through, you could easily farm some nice gear in a short amount of time.

Bestiary:
Killing any creature in the game can result in the drop of a “Monstrous Essence”. Collect 10 of these and you can go to the nearest Safe Zone and use the Bestiary altar to decipher pages. Although you can only decipher up to three pages a day, you can claim your rewards as many times as you collect 10 essences. I have found this to be a good source of legendaries.

Shadow Contracts:
Each day, Bartender Bailey, in the Wolf City Tavern in Westmarch, offers Shadow players 1 or more contracts to complete. Among the rewards for completing these contracts is often a legendary item.

The Rarities and Antiquities Merchant:
This fellow, Yakin, can be found in Westmarch, along the southeastern end of Rakkis Plaza. His services will become available as you advance the main questline. You can spend extra gold with this guy to randomly generate items, for money. I advise only doing this a maximum of 10 times per day, per item category, as his prices go up after this point and it is really uneconomical. I once found 3 legendaries in the first set of 10 items I bought, so it can happen!

World Events & Bosses:
Each area of the game has it’s own world event to complete (Purge the Corruption, Call of the Ancients, Tax Collector, to name a few), or maybe a world boss (Blood Rose, Lord Martanos, Ancient Nightmare, Sand Golem, Hydra etc.) to vanquish. These attract a high drop rate for legendaries too.

Mob Farming:
The drop rate for normal creatures is infinitesimally small. However, when you’re out killing and you see an Ancient Elite (orange/brown icon on map)… KILL IT. The drop rate for legendaries from these creatures is high.

Note: It is important to note that Charms will also provide a CR boost, especially if you level their abilities up to.

Upgrading Your Gear

Now you have legendary equipment, you need to make sure that you upgrade it as often as possible. To do this, you will need the services of any of the blacksmiths around Sanctuary. I am hoping that, as you’ve been playing, you’ve been picking up all the loot dropped by the mobs and using the blacksmith to salvage it into scraps, dust or even glowing shards (from unwanted legendaries). You will need every piece of salvage you can get your hands on so please don’t dismiss those white, common loot drops…. you will see over time that you will never get enough!

Upgrading legendary gear requires all of it, but Glowing Shards are the hardest to get. It is largely only obtainable by salvaging legendary gear that you’ve picked up but not needed as you already have it, or it is inferior. There is also a recurring quest in the Dark Wood to fight your own dark shadow which rewards a players with a glowing shard each time.

In Westmarch, there is a vendor by the blacksmith, Charsi, who can convert lesser materials into higher class materials. This is a good service, but be careful not to overspend on scraps into dust, as then you’ll have to go collecting so much more scrap to upgrade stuff – you’ll need a good quantity of both.

Also, secondary gear requires Enigmatic Crystals which are mainly sourced from completing Challenge Rifts, but can also be a gift on the Battle Pass. Do not forget to upgrade secondary gear alongside primary!

Gems, Gems and Even Better Gems

Your CR will improve dramatically if you improve your gems, especially the legendaries.

Normal Gems

These gems are dropped by most of the creatures in the game but they are fairly rare to get. There are a couple of things you can do to improve your discovery of these little beauties:

Hilts Vendor:
The Hilts vendor in Westmarch allows 10 normal gems to be bought from him each week. Watch out for his special offers page as there is the option to buy 1 or 2 extra now and again.

Party of Four:
Just being in a party of four, with three other people, will give an automatic buff the the percentage chance of normal gems being dropped. Unlike other versions of Diablo, however, you will only ever see rank 1 normal gems drop.

Hidden Lairs:
These mini-dungeons, that randomly spawn in all areas of the game, are a fantastic way to boost your gem collection. For the first run through in a day, you can make around 6 normal gems just by doing the side quests that pop up as you go through, and by killing the boss at the end.

Legendary Gems

This is a little more complicated and I won’t go into the higher levels of these gems. By the time anyone gets there, they’ll probably know this game better than the developers or have moved on to Diablo 4 (out next year!). Legendary gems are predominantly sourced from Elder Rifts and/or can be Crafted by an Apprentice Jeweler. Levelling a legendary gem requires other legendary gems and this process gives a very healthy boost to CR. The problem is that it is not as easy to get them. The Battle Pass also gives some legendary gems out as rewards, more so if it is the Empowered Battle Pass.

Elder Rifts

There is a possibility for a legendary gem to drop from the end chest of an Elder Rift with no input, but I’ve only seen this a couple of times and not enough to actually upgrade another gem at this rate. What is needed are Eternal Legendary Crests to augment the rift. Each eternal crest will output a random legendary gem at the end of a rift, and up to 10 of these purple crests can be added to the rift before it begins. These can be obtained:

Buying Them from the In-game Store:
I wouldn’t spend money on them but many do.

Hilts Vendor:
This guy sells these for hilts at a rate of 1 per month (such a joke)!

Crest Merchant:
By the Elder and Challenge Rift entrances, is a merchant called Jondo Mauren. You can exchange Eternal Orbs (purchased only through microtransactions) for Eternal Legendary Crests.

Warband Voucher: (needs confirming)
I haven’t looked into this but there is a new mechanic whereby some warband raid awards a voucher that can be used to allow a player to buy an Eternal Legendary Crest from the Crest Merchant for platinum, rather than Eternal Orbs.

Crafting Legendary Gems

Alongside the miniscule chance that a legendary gem will naturally drop in an Elder Rifts, players can earn “Runes” and “Fading Embers” more easily. Beside the Elder Rift entrance is a Fading Ember Merchant, where a player can convert his embers into runes (for a price) and then these runes can be used by an Apprentice Jeweler to craft either specific 1-star legendary gems, or traded for random 1 or 2 star tradable gems. We don’t need to worry about the trading aspect here.

The player can choose which legendary gems he thinks will compliment his character and its build. The rest of the legendaries collected can be broken down, again by the jeweller, and used as materials to upgrade those socketed gems. Each time a legendary gem is upgraded, it will say how much of an increase to CR it will give. The higher the upgrade, the higher the CR boost.

The Helliquary

Each time your Helliquary is upgraded with Refined Scoria, This item gives an ever-increasing amount of CR, clearly visible on the item description.

Scoria is obtained by either killing the Helliquary bosses, or as gifts from the battlepass. This has to refined, using the services of a blacksmith.

Collecting and Upgrading the Legacy of the Horadrim Vessels

I have already covered most of the information regarding the LotH vessels in another guide found here.

For the purposes of this guide, the more you use the Culling Stones to upgrade the vessels, the higher the bonuses received and CR gained. I do not know how much CR is gained from boosting these types of stats and I apologise for not being more knowledgeable. What I will say though is that any stat boost will help you to kill stuff faster and earn more loot/cash for upgraded gear/gems.

Other Things That Can Help You…

Advancing Up Through the Paragon Levels

No matter what you CR is, you will still be able to fight at some level of the game and level up your character.

Once you have surpassed level 60, you will start to level into Paragons. Each time you gain a new paragon level, you will be awarded 1 paragon point to put into any of the paragon trees. Doing this will give you small, but cumulative bonuses to your characters statistics, including CR. This may be inaccurate, will investigate further.

Increasing You Shadow Rank

After being inducted into the Shadows, whether you decide to be in a Dark Clan or not, you are able to perform daily tasks, advance through the Path of Blood, raid the immortal vault, take on Shadow Contracts and/or attend the daily Assembly – to give and receive Blessings.

Doing these daily tasks can award you “Shadow Marks”, which are basically points which build up and allow you to continually increase your Shadow Rank. Each time you gain a rank, you will given a base bonus of 1% to attack and defence. So, if you reach rank 10, which in game terms is “Watcher III”, you will receive a 10% attack and 10% defence bonus to your character.

Note: If you are a member of a Dark Clan, doing all the above Shadow tasks also adds points to the Clan, which is really important for the clan leader boards and positionings for Shadow Wars. This is a different topic and one I won’t be covering here.

As I said at the start, I am not an expert and apologise if I have either missed out information or got it slightly wrong. Please feel free to let me know either via the Contact form, or Discord, if important changes need to be made.

Diablo Immortal – “Legacy of the Horadrim” Quest Guide (Updated)

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Legacy of the Horadrim: how to Unlock, Use & Upgrade

In Diablo Immortal, “Legacy of the Horadrim” are vessels that offer a great way for players to improve their character exclusively through items found in the game’s world. Unfortunately, some elements in the game are only available by making micro-purchases, sometimes referred to as Pay to Win (P2W), but thankfully this particular system is entirely earned in-game and grants huge benefits to your character.

The core information for this post has been sourced from ggrecon.com

These Horadrim vessels offer buffs to your character’s secondary attributes. Players can find these vessels throughout the world, by defeating the enemies that surround them, and then activate them to utilise them to the fullest potential. Some of the Horadrim vessels only contain singular benefits, but others buff multiple, making them invaluable for tackling some of the toughest, late-game enemies.

Unlocking the “Legacy of the Horadrim” Quest

There are requirements that need to be met before you are able to unlock the Legacy of the Horadrim quest, and start obtaining these valuable vessels.

  • You must have achieved a minimum of character level 49.
  • You must have completed 10 Challenge Rifts.

Once you have completed your tenth challenge rift, you will be awarded the Caldesann’s Compassion vessel (drop) and be granted access to the Legacy of the Horadrim quest. This quest will take you through the means of activating and making use of the vessels, so it is essential to do this quest as soon as possible.

The Quest and How to Use the Horadrim Vessels

Firstly, the “Legacy of the Horadrim” quest will take you to the fountain in the middle of Westmarch. Here you will be met by the spirit of Ibn Fahd. He will lead you to a statue in the north of the city which, after some dialogue, will slide back to reveal a hidden entrance.

Once inside the sanctum, players will be urged to interact with a shrine in the centre of the room. You will insert the first vessel you collected at the end of the tenth Challenge rift, thereby activating it and unlocking it’s true strength (player stats upgrade).

There are a total of nine Horadrim Vessels, and each one can be upgraded, so any stats you initially see are just a baseline for improvement.

List of Horadrim Vessels

Legacy of the Horadrim VesselBase Stat Bonus (per upgrade level)
Caldesann’s Compassion+9 Armour, +9 Armour Protection
Cathan’s Piety+9 Potency, +9 Resistance
Guilt Of The Nameless+18 Resistance
Ibn Fahd’s Tenacity+2 Damage, +20 Life
Jered Cain’s Vision+18 Armour
Nor Tiraj’s Knowledge+40 Life
Nulfur’s Precision+18 Armour Protection
Tal Rasha’s Authority+4 Damage
Zoltun Kulle’s Ingenuity+18 Potency

Upgrading Your Horadrim Vessels

As mentioned prior, the stats of the vessels are just a baseline, and they can be upgraded to get even stronger. To upgrade the Legacy of the Horadrim vessels, you will need Culling Stones. There are three types of stones and each vessel will need a certain amount of one of the types of Culling Stones to upgrade.

To find these culling stones, you will need to explore the Sanctum Depths, inside Ibn Fahd’s Sanctum, until you reach the Aspirant’s Grounds, and then they will be inside some chests there.

Unlocking these chests requires certain amounts of Aspirant’s Keys, but they can be found as drops from the monsters in the Sanctum Depths. They do have a low drop rate so you might need to be a bit persistent, but the rewards far outweigh the effort required. Keys are also available for purchase from a Hilts Vendor at a maximum of 5 per day.

The later chests do require more and more keys to unlock, so you’ll have to grind away if you’re wanting to max out your vessels and be the strongest you can be.

Check Out This Youtuber’s Guide

And That’s It… Almost!

From here on out you will have to go searching for the other Horadrim Vessels, throughout Sanctuary, kill a lot of creatures and keep upgrading your vessels! 🙂

(Update) When you check the altar and click on vessels you haven’t yet found, it will tell you at the bottom, in red writing, which creature needs to be killed, and on what difficulty – usually in Hell 1.

Watch Me Play Core Keeper on YouTube NOW!

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Another Game for me to Apply my Noobishness!

Hello everybody. Since I am waiting now for the full release of the game Necesse before I continue with a new season on that, I decided to play a game that is often listed side-by-side. That game is Core Keeper.

Core Keeper Playthrough Videos

More videos will be released, over time, so stay tuned for more (Subscribe!).

An Urgent and Shameless Request!

I am trying to build the channel and am having serious problems with visibility. If you wish to help, please go watch the videos, like, comment (with anything!) and subscribe. This will make it rank higher in the famous “algorithm”. Thanks to you all!

The Game

Awaken as an explorer in a long-forgotten cavern teeming with untold secrets. In this award-winning, 1-8 player mining sandbox adventure, your choices shape an epic journey. Harvest relics and resources, craft advanced tools, build your base, and explore a dynamically evolving world waiting to be unearthed.

Level up your skills, defeat legendary Titans, and unveil the power of the Core. Grow your garden, fish in mysterious waters, master a vast array of recipes, raise and care for animals, encounter the Cavelings, and carve out your own unique world in an enchanting underground adventure.

  • MINE RESOURCES

Delve deep to harvest precious resources and unearth hidden gems. Craft tools to help you survive, from pickaxes, fishing rods, and shovels to traps, bombs, and mortars. Upgrade your arsenal and equipment with advanced tools like the mighty Obliteration Ray, and automated machinery to streamline mining, smelting, storage, and more. Level up your skills and unlock powerful weapons to conquer the depths.

  • DISCOVER AN ANCIENT WORLD

Explore diverse biomes with unique ecosystems and long-forgotten lore. From the living walls of the Clay Caves to the crystal caverns of the Shimmering Frontier, discover more about this mysterious world as you uncover the secrets of the Cavelings. Build a boat to set sail across the Sunken Sea, race across the Desert of Beginnings, and encounter the remnants of ancient civilizations.

  • BUILD, CRAFT & GET CREATIVE

Create a totally unique base using a variety of different materials and customisations. From the ultimate adventurer’s lair to a cozy underground cottage, shape the underground your way. Customize your character’s appearance and choose from an array of powerful armor and unique outfits to suit the moment.

  • BATTLE TITANS

Face legendary Titans that hold the secret to this long-forgotten world. Sharpen your combat skills against a variety of monsters and mini-bosses, spend talent points to level up your abilities, and plan your strategy to conquer these colossal creatures of the underground. Discover rare and powerful loot to help you on your journey and power up the Core.

  • EXPLORE WITH FRIENDS

Enjoy the adventure solo or team up in 2-8 player drop-in/drop-out online co-op. Play your way and explore at your own pace — celebrate the seasons, trade with merchants, hatch your new best friends, design the ultimate base, automate resource gathering, host your own dedicated server, create music on playable instruments and discover an unforgettable sandbox adventure.

Source: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1621690/Core_Keeper/

Doom: The Dark Ages & A Look Back In History

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Join the Doom Slayer, Fighting Against the Forces of Hell, Again!

Last week saw the release of Doom: The Dark Ages, the eighth installment of the classic franchise, and prequel to the Doom of 2016.

I was just about 10 years old when ID Software released the original Doom game and, back then, the way we interacted with the gaming world was very different. There wasn’t an accessible internet, nor thousands of titles and a massive indie market, there was just a niche little market for people who had a computer or console to mess around in their bedrooms. In fact, I’m not even sure the game had an age rating, but instead a warning of blood, gore and violence… a LOT of violence in the case of Doom!

Video from STEAM Store

Unfortunately, today, my aging laptop would likely struggle too much to support the amazing graphics of this new installment, but from the pictures and videos I’ve seen so far, I will definately be trying this out if/when I get the chance.

The reason I am making this post is more because of the nostalgia ride I went on, looking back at the Doom franchise’s history, and also of other games that were linked to this period of time. For example, I came across the Wiki entry for Commander Keen (1990-91; excluding the 2001 game for Game Boy Colour). I remember playing this off the floppy disk, back when I was a kid spending the summer holidays with my aunt, on their ancient PC! This was a side-scrolling platformer by the ID too.

Anyway, just thought I’d share this.

The European Union Fights Back Against Exploitative Commercial Practices in Gaming

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New EU Regulations Could Change the Face of Gaming Forever!

YouTube channel @BellularNews has just released a video explaining the European Union’s new legislation, which, if enforced correctly, will stop the overwhelmingly corrupt and manipulative commercial practices which have taken over the world of gaming today.

These new laws, which are primarily designed to protect younger and more vulnerable audiences, will target exploititive selling tactics and curb how “bundles” and “premium currencies” are marketed and sold to the consumer (gamers!).

I don’t wish to spoil the details, so please watch the original video below, or go straight to YouTube to view here.

Lox’s Blind Necesse Playthrough on YouTube

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Check out a noob playing through Necesse now!

Hi all. I’ve decided to make a go of it on YouTube now, as I need major upgrades to be able to stream on Twitch again. My poor little laptop just isn’t cut out for the streaming life. I’m not sure when this upgrade can happen so I thought I would do something I can do…. YouTube gaming content.

First off, I am making a series on the game Necesse, a sandbox action-adventure exploration game in which you progress your character and settlement through fighting, mining, exploring, crafting, fishing, trading and more. The world is procedurally generated, taking place on smaller islands each with a different biome, cave system, enemies and loot.

At the time of this post, I have just released the fifth episode of my adventure! If you’re interested, please come and watch on YouTube, and help the LoxTech Gaming channel grow by liking the videos and subscribing for more content. Below is the link to ‘Episode 1: What A Frickin’ Noob!’. Enjoy!

To view the LGC channel, go to https://www.youtube.com/@loxtech

Links for Necesse

Official: https://necessegame.com/
STEAM: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1169040/Necesse
Wiki: https://necessewiki.com/Main_Page

Contact Lox

I’m only available in-game on Mecha Domination, Evony: The King’s Return and Whiteout Survival, or you can come to Reddit, or direct e-mail for a quicker response.

Whiteout Survival’s 2nd Birthday!

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2 Years Old and The Game is Growing Up Fast!

I’ve been playing this nice little free-to-play, city builder since around August of 2024. Today, I logged in to be greeted by a welcome video. I saw there was a gift of free gems for clicking the “play” button so decided why not?

So, Why l Are You Telling Us?

I play a lot of different games and, as with most city-builders, these take time and daily input to grow and keep safe through regular player-versus-play events. Whiteout Survival makes up my triumverate, alongside Evony: The King’s Return, and Mecha Domination: Rampage, and a lot of my free time is taken up by these bad boys!

Due to time restraints, a few months ago, I very nearly had to quit one of these games. Unfortunately, it was WoS that was “on the chopping block” as it was the newest for me, and with the least developed city of the three. I took a trip to the main alliance’s academy and discovered that, with less pressure to participate in every event and be active all the time, I had the breathing room to log in if and when I had the time.

However, this morning – coinciding with the release of this birthday video – I discovered that I had in fact logged in for 31 days straight, meaning I had finally got the balance right. I am so glad I didn’t quit it as the people I play alongside are so friendly and knowedgeable, and the game itself is really fun. There have been many updates over the past six months that have added so many new events, heroes and some cool and addictive mini-games.

Happy second birthday Whiteout Survival, I’ll see you on your 3rd!

Official Whiteout Survival website

Whiteout Survival and it’s associated media is the property of Century Games.

Free Gift Codes

Go to the main Whiteout Survival page to see a list of gift codes.

Twitch Streaming Suspended

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Plagued By Issues!

I deeply apologise to anyone who was following me on Twitch, but I have had to suspend my streaming until such time as I can get a major hardware upgrade.

My Factorio: Space Age run will be restarted, if and when I can sort myself out, and I am learning more stuff in the background to improve upon my spaghetti mess!

If anyone wishes to reach out, then please email:

admin@loxtech-gaming.co.uk

On a side note, thank you to everyone who has been supporting me so far. It has been a good run, up to now lol!

Albion Online’s Rogue Frontier Update

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Coming Up Next Month…

Rogue Frontier arrives February 3, calling bold adventurers to Albion’s rugged wilds. This update brings further improvements to the Outlands experience, offering fresh gameplay for solo explorers and small groups, alongside an array of new challenges and ways for you to master Albion’s evolving wilderness and claim your place in its ever-changing world.

The Smugglers, a shadowy network of outcasts and misfits disillusioned by the rigid rules of the Royal Continent, have ventured into Albion’s lawless Outlands to carve out a presence in this unforgiving place. The Smugglers have established secretive havens called Smuggler’s Dens, where you can set your home in this uncharted expanse. Within these dens, the newly unveiled Smuggler’s Network connects distant marketplaces, enabling alternative trading routes across the Outlands.

The Smugglers themselves have formed a new Faction and its members are in need of your support to resist the Royal forces. Recover Smuggler Crates from ambushed wagons, rescue Captured Smugglers from Royal Guards, or deliver Smuggler’s Coins to gain Faction Standing. Through these actions, adventurers can earn rewards and climb the ranks in the Smugglers’ intricate web of influence and trade.

The new Bank Overview lets you view items stored in your bank tabs anywhere in Albion, Kill Trophies allow you to immortalize PvP victories, and more Dynamic Resource Templates offer greater variety and new opportunities for resourceful adventurers. Meanwhile, the new Creatures category for the Albion Journal challenges players to document and hunt Albion’s diverse beasts. Whether exploring, fighting, or trading, Rogue Frontier invites you to uncover new depths in Albion’s untamed lands.

SMUGGLER’S DENS

Cerys_Update_page_Smuggler_Den_800x450.jpg

Smuggler’s Dens serve as new bases of operations in Albion’s most challenging regions. Spread across the Outlands, these underground sanctuaries, established by the roguish Smuggler Faction, play host to conveniences like banks, Repair Stations, and Travel Planners.

For solo players, these dens offer a safe retreat from danger while navigating the Outlands. They also provide a travel option deep within Albion’s wild reaches, giving small-scale players the option to base themselves far from the Royal Continent. And while you’re down there, you’ll encounter some shady characters who run a lucrative smuggling operation…

SMUGGLER’S NETWORK

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The Smuggler’s Network operates as a system of interconnected marketplaces across the Outlands, managed by the Smuggler Faction. Each Smuggler’s Den features a Smuggler’s Market from this network, allowing adventurers to buy and sell items to every Den and Rest within the Outlands, independent of the Marketplaces of the Royal Continent.

This comes at a cost, however, depending on the distance an item has traveled across the Outlands. So will you make your purchases nearby, venture to a distant Smuggler’s Den for the best deals, or risk the journey back to the Royal Continent to save some Silver? A whole range of new choices has opened up – decide how you want to play the market!

SMUGGLER ACTIVITIES

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The Smugglers have established a new Faction within the Outlands, where their daring operations unfold under constant threat from the royal forces. Help their cause, and your loyalty will be rewarded:

• Smuggler Crates: Recover contraband from ambushed Smuggler’s Wagons and deliver it to hidden stashes throughout the Outlands
• Captured Smugglers: Find Smugglers captured by Royal Guards and defeat their captors to set them free
• Smuggler’s Coins: Find the currency used by the Smugglers hidden in Caches and Coffers, and buy your way up the ranks. In the Smuggler’s world, money is power!

SMUGGLER’S REWARDS

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Increasing your Standing with the Smuggler Faction will prove to Maggy Slade that you’re a trustworthy ally. Find this suspicious trader in a Smuggler’s Den to purchase unique new items:

• Smuggler’s Vanity Set: A brand-new, non-tradable wardrobe set that boldly proclaims your allegiance to this shady gang
• Smuggler’s Cape: A powerful item with the Hidden Vial ability, reducing your potion slot cooldown
• Smuggler’s Ring and Avatar: Exclusive, themed rewards to make your enemies think twice about crossing paths with you

KILL TROPHIES

Cerys_Update_page_Kill_trophies_800x450.jpg

There’s now a new way to show off your most prized PvP kills to the world with Kill Trophies. These furniture items have a chance to drop any time you vanquish another player – and the more valuable the kill, the greater the likelihood you receive a trophy.

Kill Trophies can be displayed in the open world and on islands, meaning you can brag about your prowess to passersby, or simply stand and contemplate your own triumph. So get killing and earn these trophies – soon your rivals will be shaking in their boots!

NEW CRYSTAL WEAPONS

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Three deadly new Crystal Weapons are unleashed with this update:

• Rotcaller Staff (Cursed Staff): Summons an accursed form which knocks back your foes while spewing a deadly mist
• Skystrider Bow (Bow): Allows you to levitate and cast powerful bolts down upon your enemies from above
• Forcepulse Bracers (War Gloves): Lets you dash towards your opponents while unleashing devastating pulses of raw energy

BANK OVERVIEW

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This update brings a long-awaited UI addition: the Bank Overview. This allows players to view all their items stored in any bank across Albion in a single window. Bank contents can be navigated by location and tab, and a search function lets you easily find exactly where in the world you left an item.

With the new opportunities created by the Smugglers, players now have a convenient way to keep track of everything they have stashed away, allowing them to manage trading, transporting, and re-gearing with ease.

ADDITIONAL IMPROVEMENTS

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• A new Albion Journal category, Creatures, challenges players to hunt down all of Albion’s beasts, with more unique rewards on offer
• New varieties of Dynamic Resource Hotspots bring lucrative gathering possibilities
• Further quality-of-life improvements offer a smoother gameplay experience
• A wide range of combat balance changes keep the battlefield fresh and competitive
• And much more!

Source Material

Visit The Official Site for the source material, and other Albion Online news!

EvonyTKR – Resource-Time Calculator (2025 Version)

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It’s Back, and a Little Better…

It has been a few years since I made the first resource calculator for Evony: The King’s Return, so it was time it had an overhaul to include new features. These include:

  1. Total up your Food, Lumber, Stone, Ore & Gold so you know exactly how much you have combined, from your Resource Bar, Alliance Warehouse and Items. This now includes columns for “Safe Resources” (NEW).
  2. Input any building projects you have planned so you can see if you can afford it, what you need to gather, and see what is left over (surplus).
  3. Troop calculator – Input the troop type and the cost of a single unit, and this will tell you how many of that unit you can afford to train, based on the surplus figure (adjusted for any build projects you have added).
  4. Speed Up calculator (NEW) – A second sheet has been added for you to input all your speed up items, and it will calculate the total amount. This covers all speed up types and shows a total for each type, and a grand total figure, in Minutes, Hours, Days and Years! This also includes a small calculator to add together the annoying smaller stack sizes, such as the 30 Minute Speed Ups, which only stack to 9,999!

See pictures below for more detail.

Download

My last calculator was a permission-based, Google Sheet version, which was awkward and a nightmare to manage. This new version is available as a download, which can be found here:

https://loxtech-gaming.co.uk/download/evonytkr-resource-time-calculator-2025-version/ *

The original web-based resource calculators can still be found here:

https://loxtech-gaming.co.uk/evony/building-resource-calculator/ (Web)

https://loxtech-gaming.co.uk/?cff-form=6 (Web; Mobile-friendly)

* the downloadable Zip file contains two versions of the calculator spreadsheet; one is a .xlsx file (for Microsoft Excel**), and the second is a .odp file (For other Open Source programs).

**Excel did give me a strange formula warning when I opened it but, after checking, they do work fine, so not sure what that’s all about.

Quick Pics

Sheet 1: The main resource, building and troop calculator.
Sheet 2: The new Speed Up calculator.

Additional

  • If there are any problems or bugs which affect the sheet, please let me know ASAP. I don’t want to disseminate a faulty product.
  • Obviously, you can do whatever you like with this file, but I do ask that if you re-post it somewhere else, I am given the credit for this version.
  • If anyone makes adjustments and/or improvements, please let me know and I can review it and possibly update the download – with your credit, of course!
  • A cheeky little bit here: If you like my work and want to help support future projects (such as a “Personal General Tracker” I have planned, please feel free to donate: https://loxtech-gaming.co.uk/donate/

Thank you all.

This was posted to my Reddit page also: https://www.reddit.com/r/LoxTech/comments/1hqfuts/evonytkr_resourcetime_calculator_2025_version/

A Look At Some Free-To-Play Games (Part 1)

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What Have I Been Wasting My Time With?

Currently, all I have is time and, apart from working on a couple of new, secret projects, I have been downloading and playing some games on my BlueStacks (PC client). I thought I would share these with you guys, as I found them to be entertaining, albeit distracting!

It is important to note that most games now are free-to-play, but contain in-app purchases, which could include the dreaded “loot boxes” (See this Wikipedia Article for definition). We here at Loxtech Gaming want to stress that, although making purchases within these games has been made so easy, it is vital you stop and think about whether you really need these extra items, or if you can realistically afford to do so. Another useful Wikipedia Article covers “Gacha” games, which is the umbrella term that includes loot boxes.

If anyone wants me to try a game out and review it, mail me.

Evony: The King’s Return

Developer: TopGames Inc. (Visit Home)
Platform: Mobile and PC (PC link)
Price: Free-to Play
In-App Purchases: Yes
Social: Multiplayer Only
Lox’s Ranking: Good / Very Enjoyable / Awesome!

My Take?

This is an insanely addictive game that is so broad in its complexity that I got hooked a few years ago and still play it on a daily basis. Once you start gaining power and get involved with alliances, it is almost impossible to stop. This is a hard one to describe in a few paragraphs, but I’ll give it a go.

You are a Monarch. You have your own city (Keep). You are one of a few hundred people in a server, on one big map. There are thousands of other servers around you. You build up your city, you train troops, recruit generals, battle, against monsters, barbarian keeps, other players’ keeps, or the main city in the centre. You become more and more powerful over time, until – if you are good enough – you can become the server’s ruler. Okay, so not too complicated, right?

You obviously start off small, with a tiny keep with a few buildings inside. You have to build up your strength by building new structures and then training troops. Farms inside your city automatically collect resources for your endeavours and troop training facilities can work non-stop pumping out units for you to use as defence, offence or gathering resources from resource spots in the world (known as “tiles” or “RSS spots” to many.

As you gather resources and items from gathering, or attacking NPC mobs (or players if you’re brave enough at this point), you can upgrade your buildings to unlock higher tier troops and equipment. Your main city administrative building is your Keep. This needs to be levelled up to open up more building types and upgrade options. Building, training, research technologies, crafting eqipment and healing et cetera, all costs resources and time.

The game does provide you with a few basic generals (troop leaders) to play with at the start, but you can recruit new, more powerful, or better suited generals, from various sources as the game progresses. Generals are fully cutomisable in terms of the equipment (armour) they wear, and the additional refinements placed on them. This is a fairly easy principle to pick up at the start, but as you get more experienced, you will see how much more focus you need to spend on this aspect to maximise your power and abilities later on.

I’ve mentioned researching technologies, which is done through the Academy building. Each technology researched grants additional percentages on various things in the game, from power, defence, time reductions, and lots of other aspects in the game. Research starts off fairly quick but later on, you could have to wait for weeks, or even months to research 1 technology. Don’t panic though…

This game provides so much in the way of collectible resources… not just your basic building or training materials, but also “speedups”, which can help reduce build/research/training timers, so once you get to a technology which may take 2 days to finish, for example, you will likely have items such as 48 x 1 hour speedups to use. I’m crap at explaining so check it out for yourself.

I could go on, but I’ve just scratched the surface of what’s in this game. You really can play it all day and still have things to do somewhere. It is likely that in the beginning you may not be able to go as far as you want before having to leave the game to idle a bit, but you will see that the developers have thought about this and provided many different activities to do.

This game is what I would call pay-to-win BUT it isn’t oppressive with it… what I mean is, with time, anyone can build their power and skill to the same level. There are so many packages you can buy and it can be tempting when you need just a little bit more, so be careful with that. Recently, the rewards for general gameplay have increased with the new level cap of 45, so if you are new, join an alliance and reap the massive rewards for others killing the big stuff!

I gave this my top ranking of Awesome! for this game as I’ve been playing it for a few years and am not bored. I do go through periods of burnout, and then login to do my dailies and not much else, but this always subsides – especially if you’re in a good alliance, with amazing people around you.

Get this game and give it a good go. You will need to get past an introduction period before the real game starts… don’t be put off by it, just follow it and eventually you can play normally.

Side note: I am on server 1191 if anyone comes looking!

Gold & Goblins: Idle Games

Developer: AppQuantum (Visit Home)
Platform: Google Play (Direct link)
Price: Free-to Play
In-App Purchases: Yes
Social: Single Player (Though there is a leaderboard in events)
Lox’s Ranking: Good / Very Enjoyable / Awesome!

My Take?

I don’t know quite why I like this game. I think it’s because I have a thing for mining. Whether it’s EVE Online, World of Warcraft, MineCraft, or any other game where you have to actively mine to get resources, I just get right into them. This is a little different though, as you don’t really collect anything, but coins, gems, Elixir bottles, chests, upgrade cards and keys (in events) – well that is a few things lol.

You mission is simple: enter a mine, buy low-level goblins and start mining out the rocks. As you progress you get money from unearthing and repairing sub-mines along the way, which you use to buy new goblins. Merging goblins raises their level and making them better miners (quicker). The rocks themselves have levels too, making it harder, or longer, to mine, unless you develop goblins to match or surpass their level. The sub-mines themselves can be upgraded and automated, depending on whether you have collected enough cards and Elixir bottles, and this money is used solely to buy more goblins to mine.

Once you finish a mine, you move on to the next. Between each level there is now a mini-game where you drive a massive truck through rocks to collect extra goodies, which is very fun but only lasts 30 seconds or so. All your goblins and mine development resets to zero with each mine, but you keep all the cards and their upgrades for the next mine

Gems are the valuable resource in this game and they are hard to collect, so use them very wisely. They are used to buy extra Elixir bottles, missing upgrade cards and time bonuses. Of course this means that if you run out, the game will want real-life money to buy more. I have avoided this so far. It is not a problem – you just need more patience.

Every few days there are themed events. When I wrote this, there was a Halloween-themed event. These are just extra mines that are separate from your main mines, where you can mine out rocks for keys. These are used to unlock bonus items for your main game. With events, all the cards, upgrades and bottles are event specific and will all disappear when it ends, but the event rewards go to your main mine.

This is an idle game, meaning that you can play whenever you want and if you go make a cup of tea or close the app, the goblins will still keep mining (they don’t get a break!).

Overall this is a bit of fun as a side game. I rated it “Good” as it is fairly simple and you don’t really play along with anyone else so purely a distraction when bored. Worth checking it out. I think you will either like it or not!

Other Games

I will be writing another post soon with a few more games… I play a lot!