Get your mead on! ZAM checks out Rift's latest world event

Mead, mounts, and merriment! The Fae Yule Celebration is in full swing right now in Rift, and News Writer Paul "LockeColeMA" Cleveland has been playing around with the festive fun for weeks. Read on to see his reactions, and check out our wikibase guide to cover all your bases in the newest world event!

Thank you, Trion. It's not often I say that to game companies... ok, granted, I did so with Skyrim; and when Blizzard released Cataclysm, before I realized what it really contained. I might have said that with almost every Final Fantasy game I own, though each time with a bit less enthusiasm, and ending it “Thank you, it's finally over” in FFXII. But I truly believe Trion has tried to get into the holiday spirit by making me feel as if I am a unique snowflake. How else can I explain the joy I found upon discovering hundreds of identical Unique Snowflakes for their winter holiday event in rift, the Fae Yule Celebration? I feel that, much like these bushels of unique snowflakes, I too am personally unique and important to Trion. And if that's a lie, at least they provide boatloads of mead, a new world event and some festive cheer! So let's pull up a chair by the fire, roast some chestnuts with Grandfather Frost and discuss the latest and greatest holiday treat!

Telarans of all stripes will be well acquainted with the Fae Yule celebration by now; the event, which has three parts, has been going on since November 22^nd and will last for six weeks, making it longer lasting than Christmas carols on the radio but significantly less annoying. Much like other events in Rift, the basic formula has remained relatively the same: you complete daily quests and shut down themed rifts to get hundreds of (very ironically named) Unique Snowflakes to trade in for fabulous prizes and rewards. This time, the useful rewards come primarily in the form of windstones; as usual, in level intervals 10 apart from each other.

The other rewards run to the more materialistic bent inherent in the holiday season: fabulous costumes of a wintery variety for all the good little boys and girls (with the snowflakes to pony up). I'll admit, I was a bit surprised to not find every man, woman and child decked out like a sexy Santa; the costumes for the season are relatively tame and overwhelmingly... purple. Ish. I'm a guy; the color looks like off-purple. The only “traditional” Christmas item is the Fae Yule Festival Cap, which I quickly snapped up. Who needs windstones when you have a Santa cap, right? There is also a corgi companion named Rudy which summons a Lil' Kringles, and a mount called the Tawny Fae Yule Vaiyuu, that matches your highest speed. I'll admit, even tossing some antlers on the vaiyuu wasn't enough to entice me. Have you ever looked at those things before? I ride a two-headed turtle, and it's still more attractive.

Aw, they're so cute with their antlers... wait. Nope; still ugly.

Now, all of these goodies don't come cheap! Luckily, there are plenty of ways to get the not-so-Unique Snowflakes. The event is currently in stage 2, and allows for a few daily quests that reward both 25 Snowflakes and a Jingling Bell, which gives some additional snowflakes as well as some seasonal special items. The daily quests consist of the normal “kill rift creatures, return items” to unique ones like throwing wreathes on the walls or getting MEAD for a satyr. Most of them can be completed quickly. During the event itself, all air rifts and invasions also reward Snowflakes, and, even better, there are unique fae yule celebrant “footholds” that consist of a Yule tree and presents surrounding it. After looting a number of gifts (the large ones contain a snowflake or a lump of coal; the small ones contain short-term bonuses like the normal crystals found in a rift event), the tree will disappear. These were all over the place in Iron Pine Peaks (IPP), and spending an hour netted me a couple hundred Unique Snowflakes; easily enough to afford my Windstones and hat.

Yule Tree foothold. Hint: go for the BIG presents!

I did discover, to my chagrin, that some people get veeeery over protective when it comes to their fae yule trees. I'll admit, I don't get what the big deal is; you only get around 20 snowflakes from one of these footholds, and there were always several up and around IPP while I was looking. Still, I had some holiday Grinch use all kinds of profanity for daring to take “his” presents. I hope he got coal... speaking of which, the lumps of coal can be used to light special holiday fires and receive some extra snowflakes and consumables. So... I guess the goal is actually better for net gain than just opening a present and receiving one snowflake at a time, but it involves an extra step. One oddity: I wasn't able to find a fire in Meridian, but found a brazier for it in Stonefield right near the porticulum.

Like most of the events in Rift, players will have plenty of time to get the goodies from the vendor. What remains frustratingly random are the arbitrary and rare drops from the seasonal rifts. Our wiki guide covers the drops pretty well, but you'll have to close a lot of air rifts to get a chance at the Spotted Festive Fae Yule Vaiyuu. Beside the snowmen, most of the other rare items can be purchased or drop occasionally from Jingling Bells. I managed to find two of the Satyr Snowmen, so hopefully they aren't too rare. I can't tell if I love the randomness or hate it, but I'm leaning toward the latter; sure, it's nice to have a super-duper rare item, but it can be frustrating as all heck to spend hours and get nothing while you read stories of players finding one on their first rift.  

Paul "LockeColeMA" Cleveland, Staff Writer.