Everything new in Albion Online's Horizons update

Albion Online released a new content update this week, Horizons. With it came a wealth of updates, making the open-world content more enjoyable to play, on top of some new features. The sandbox MMORPG added some features other popular MMOs have been doing for a while, to offer more content, such as Dynamic Encampments, as well as the useful S.A.F.E. Portal for solo players.

Whether you’re a beginner in Albion Online or a more veteran player, the Horizons update will no doubt have something interesting for you to explore. Here are all the major features this patch brought to the sandbox MMO.

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All new features in Albion Online’s Horizons update

Perhaps the biggest update in Albion Online’s Horizons update is the Unexpected Encounters system. Think of these as something similar to FATES in Final Fantasy 14, or the group events in Guild Wars 2. The main difference is that you can’t use Blue Mage in this game to easily grind through them.

There are plenty of challenging, but rewarding new encounters ahead (Image via Sandbox Interactive)

Unexpected Encounters show up in the form of mob camps that show up in random locations for a limited time. Success can give players loot, Might, and Favor. In addition, you can get Dynamic Resource Hotspots, which grant a great deal of resources to the player who finds it. Coffers and Lair Maps are also available to the player who finds them.

If you want to really challenge yourself, these Lair Maps offer you a boss battle to tackle. Overall, Unexpected Encounters adds a little chaos to the map, making exploration far more worth it in the Albion Online Horizons update.

In addition, thanks to the S.A.F.E. Portals, solo players can dive into the most challenging Outlands content. From a Portal Town, you can be launched into these more challenging locales. In addition, the Outlands content has been made more rewarding — an increase in difficulty and rewards has been added, depending on the difficulty of the region in question.

These Crystal creatures are not to be taken lightly (Image via Sandbox Interactive)

The idea is that areas that players normally don’t head to will be more worthwhile, with greater rewards for Albion Online players. There are also some new Crystal Creatures in the Outlands — Crystal Beetles and Crystal Cobras. These are meant to be fought in a group, and will not go down easily.

If you want something more on your current level before tackling greater content in Albion Online, the Horizons update brought Tier 5 Blue Zones and Tier 6 Yellow Zones to the Royal Continent, to give players a bit of a buffer before diving into the full-loot PVP zones beyond.

Beyond gameplay changes, overall improvements have been made to the game. For example, the HUD Editor allows players to adjust the size, scope, and opacity of the various UI elements. This has become more popular in MMOs over the years, allowing players to make their main HUD look exactly how they want it to.

Not happy with the UI? Make it your own! (Image via Sandbox Interactive)

There are some minor changes as well in Albion Online’s Horizon update. Two new Journal Categories were added: Social and Guild, and Islands. The first encourages players to work together, and the second gives missions that revolve around personal/guild islands.

Another popular change was to Inventory and Storage. Players can customize the size of items to make things more visible, and a variety of sorting options were added. You can even “Move All” to transfer piles of items more easily between your inventory, chests, and bank tabs.

There’s so much more to this update, you can find the full patch notes here. These were the most important features players will want to look out for as this update is now available in-game.

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