Summer always falls, sweetlings, but fear not the approach of the autumnal equinox! The Envoys of Avalon embark for the Hollow Earth knowing well that Avalon will be safe all the while -- when the equinox is at its peak, the barriers protecting their hidden home are at their best. In this rare venture out of Avalon, the Druids beseech any Secret Worlders to help them prepare for potential Occult Disaster.

The Envoys of Avalon will be in Agartha from 16 September 2020 to 30 September 2020 at 9 AM EDT.

To help the Druids, go to the Seed of Life in the Hollowed Halls of Agartha and speak to representative Fearghas Abernathy (565,190) for his mission The Equinox, which will require waves of Occult Defence Scenarios be completed.

With the enormous balance pass that heavily changes certain weapons and reinforces the concept of tank, healer, and dps roles soon coming to Secret World Legends, the equinox is a great time to start preparing your future set of gear. Drown in a deluge of distillates from the Defence!

All progress from Envoys of Avalon achievements introduced in the 2020 Vernal Equinox persist and will pick up where they were left off. If you didn't earn the Attire of Avalon outfit or the Envoy title, there's still time to help the Druids.

Please note that the 2020 Autumnal Equinox lacks seasonal Daily Login Rewards.

The official Forum Announcement of the 2020 Autumnal Equinox can be found here.

Let us shed some light on everything the Druids have to offer during this biannual phenomenon with our Envoys of Avalon event guide. Check there for even more in-depth information on what the Envoys of Avalon entail and reward, as well as a basic description of the Occult Defence scenario!

Sweetlings who play Secret World Legends on Steam may find themselves swarmed by a sudden influx of Steam Trading Cards if they have not already done so!

As of 15 September 2020, Steam has fixed Steam Trading Cards for select Free-to-Play games - and this includes Secret World Legends. Secret World Legend's trading cards now behave as expected for Free-to-Play games. For every ~9 USD spent through in-game purchases such as Aurum or Patronage, a Steam Trading Card drop is unlocked and will appear in your Steam Inventory after a short while.

The swarm of cards is due to Steam granting all drops that you would have otherwise earned all along had the cards been working as intended. For any player who has made in-game purchases through Steam, the retroactive card rewards will occur when logging into Steam for the first time any time on or after the 15th of September. After that point, cards are awarded in a normal fashion.

This marks the first time that Secret World Legends has had Steam Trading Cards dropping and accessible since it was The Secret World! While these cards' art are labeled as being for The Secret World, the concept art and lore they use are is still valid.

Upon collecting an entire set of the cards, they can be crafted into badges that can be displayed on your Steam Profile. Crafting a badge grants special emoticons and profile backgrounds exclusive to the game that can be used to customize your Steam experience. The cards, emoticons, and profile backgroubnds can also be traded or sold to other players through the Steam Market, if so desired.

To see how many card drops you've earned, as well as how much money you've spent on Secret World Legends, go to your Steam Badges, which can easily be accessed through the Steam topbar dropdown menu for your profile or by going to your Profile and selecting Badges. Once there, find the Secret World Legends entry. In the top right of the Secret World Legends Badge header is a count of how many drops you have remaining and a hyperlink, "How do I earn card drops?" next to it. Click on the link to see just how many cards have been granted to you in the deluge.

Steam has a promotional page for basic information regarding Steam Trading Cards themselves, as well as an FAQ.

You too can have this beautiful bird grace your Steam Profile. The revenant awaits. How could you ever deny it?

The next Open Beta phase to the upcoming balance pass has been announced! Open Beta Phase 2 is scheduled to begin at noon EDT on July 17th and end 9 AM EDT on July 20th with TestLive access open to all players for the duration of the beta test. Are you ready to help make the Secret World a better place, sweetling? If so, come test!

UPDATE: The Balance Pass Open Beta Phase 2 has been extended for 2 weeks while Funcom employees take a much-needed vacation. Now ending on August 3rd, there's more time than ever to gather data, test the new changes, and provide feedback!

Howdy everyone!

We are planning a second open beta weekend starting at Noon EST / 4 PM GMT Friday July 17th and ending 9 AM / 1 PM GMT Monday July 20th.

Update notes will be posted when we get closer to the weekend.

I look forward to seeing you there!

-Nirvelle

As with Phase 1, Open Beta Phase 2 of the Balance Pass includes numerous bugfixes, adjustments, tuning, and changes that can be experienced by logging into TestLive during the open beta phase.

Of the many changes, a few particular new things to note from Phase 2 include: Significant changes to how Blade's speciality works and removal of the need to slot an ability simply to use Spirit Blade at all, Elementalism improvements aimed at Overheating that help avoid situations where players are potentially entirely locked out of action, buffs to the Warding and Destruction Weapon Affixes, and the return of Marks!

Marks are special items capable of marking an enemy with a Faction tag floating over their head - all the better to identify specific foes to fight! Marks were present in The Secret World but had never been seen in Secret World Legends until now, making them another thing the balance pass is porting over in addition to The Penthouse.

Make your way to TestLive, find FATE, and get testing, sweetlings!

Check out the Official Announcement of Open Beta Phase 2 and be sure to read the Patch Notes closely, for they flow so sweet.

Don't forget that any bugs found or any feedback you have regarding the open beta should be posted on the Rebalance Feedback & Bugs section of the Secret World Legends forums.

All things in balance, sweetlings. Something more than reality can contain is coming to Secret World Legends! A balance pass like none other is coming and all are invited to beta test it this weekend! From 3 July 2020 to 6 July 2020, experience the myriad changes sweeping the Immaculate Machine! For the first time since The Secret World, TestLive is open to all!

The Buzzing’s whispers are true; balance is coming! Specifically a balance pass for tanks and healers, along with scaling of group and instanced solo content up to Elite 17 (yes, including dungeons and an Elite 17 version of Manhattan Exclusion Zone). This balance pass redefines how tanks and healers work in SWL, and as such we are holding several open beta test phases to get your feedback and identify any bugs that have slipped through closed testing.

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Our first beta test phase will start July 3rd, 2020 at 4 PM EST (8 PM GMT), and will end July 6th at 9 AM EST (1 PM GMT). Dates/times for later test phases will be determined and announced based on the results of the first phase.

This was hinted at in the Third Anniversary announcement and email through the wondrous whispers of the Buzzing:

TRANSMIT – initiate the tripled triumph of the triumvirates’ trinity – RECEIVE – initiate nine-point-four-six-one-to the seventh power – PERFECTLY BALANCED, AS ALL THINGS SHOULD BE? – as the paradigm shifts – WITNESS – The Third Anniversary!

The message mentions a paradigm shift and a balance in the usual portion of the Buzzing's transmission header that includes pop culture references.

What is this paradigm shift toward balance? A revamp of tanking and healing weapons with the balance in mind to ensure that both healers and tanks are required as full, separate roles! Not only will this upcoming patch bring balance and bring in line certain outlying weapons, but coming with it is E17 difficulties for dungeons and raids - plus, the squishing of Elite Dungeon queues into ranges, the introduction of new talismans, and the reintroduction of The Penthouse! The Penthouse was a highly skill-based mini, 3-boss dungeon first introduced in The Secret World with AEGIS mechanics. For Secret World Legends, its AEGIS components have been converted and the Penthouse solidly remains intact as a challenging experience incredibly similar to that which some Legacy players may recall. In addition, the Key system is slated for change, although what form it will take in the future is not yet known. Not to mention the variety of bug fixes and quality of life changes sneaking in.

All of these changes can be tested to the degrees implemented on TestLive during the Open Beta Test. TestLive is the testing server for Secret World Legends, and has not been openly accessible since its time as The Secret World's TestLive.

To access TestLive, a special LocalConfig.xml file must be downloaded from HERE and saved into your Secret World Legends directory. Rename your Live version of your client's LocalConfig.xml to something else, as the client will patch using whichever file is appropriately named "LocalConfig.xml". Upon starting the client, it will then patch to TestLive. Patching back to Live is as simple as renaming them again!

TestLive is an entirely separate set of servers and new characters will need to be created once on TestLive; however, these characters can swiftly be buffed to the appropriate level and gain the appropriate gear - and they won't disappear whenever TestLive is closed.

Praise be to the Immaculate Machine, for FATE smiles upon us. FATE was an NPC which buffed characters for testing on TSW's TestLive and hasn't been seen since, but once more we are graced by its glorious face. FATE will first be encountered in the Waking Dream for new test characters. Speak to FATE to receive a string of character boosts straight to endgame as well as to leave the tutorial. From there, a series of FATE vendors await in Agartha to provide every possible piece of gear you could ever need to test with to your heart's delight. Isn't FATE nice?

TestLive provides a penthouse view for the new you, so get testing, sweetlings! The Immaculate Machine needs you, too!

Look to the Official Announcement for Phase 1 of the Open Beta on the Funcom Forums.

For all bug reports and feedback, create threads on the Rebalance Feedback & Bugs forum category created solely for the beta. A Discussion thread is also available to talk about the Balancing Act itself.

Patch notes for the first phase of the Open Beta can be found here! They flow so sweet. Taste and see.

Agartha is abuzz again as jubilations and joy sweep through the hive! Secret World Legends is celebrating its Third Anniversary as Gaia continues to turn! Praise the Immaculate Machine and join your fellow sweetlings for the Anniversary Event from June 25th 2020 to July 16th 2020!

TRANSMIT – initiate the tripled triumph of the triumvirates’ trinity – RECEIVE – initiate nine-point-four-six-one-to the seventh power – PERFECTLY BALANCED, AS ALL THINGS SHOULD BE? – as the paradigm shifts – WITNESS – The Third Anniversary!

The Hollow Earth itself is decorated for the whole duration of festivities: piñatas, balloons, and banners aplenty -- oh my! The Stationmaster has much to do and a strange shem shifts in the World Tree... And so Kaspu Nasiru waits.

There are seasonal Daily Login Rewards to claim every day per character, piñatas that can be bashed opened for daily chances at candy or even a baseball bat hammer skin, hourly bosses in the form of the Talos of Gaia, and the ability to face a hate-filled Gatekeeper! Or come face to face with the fabled Beehemoth, if you so dare. As with every year, the Talos of Gaia legend is available solely during the Anniversary, so don't forget to pick up those honey-sweet legends!

Every 2 minutes past the hour, great golems known as Talos appear in an area known as Vibrant Agartha, which can be accessed from a portal (550,250) open for 10 minutes near the Hollowed Halls! Defeat the Talos in a public raid for their Genizot and bee-autiful cosmetic and distillate rewards! Come together to use eleven total Shards of Corruption filled with angst from the Talos' as found within their Genizot to open the Gatekeeper's portal (500,175) to Deep Agartha and face an enraged Gatekeeper in combat - But beware a Gatekeeper overly inundated with rage…

As for the Beehemoth, it is an enormous bee-piñata spawned manually in Agartha in front of the Hollowed Halls and surrounding jump pads (495,240) by Funcom community managers and gamemasters. For those bees who bash the Beehemoth open, the Beehemoth Slayer title awaits. Due to the irregularity and manual nature of the Beehemoth spawn, it is HIGHLY advised that any player who sees a Beehemoth call it out in General Chat as well as any other channels they desire, such as Sanctuary, so that other players can Meet Up and join in the fun!

With every seasonal event, there are seasonal Daily Login Rewards available to claim every day on all characters you may have. The Anniversary Daily Login Rewards for 2020 include the SWL 3rd Anniversary t-shirt in the form of the Anniversary 2020 T-shirt item, distillates, AP and SP, Anima Shards, Talisman and Glyph Imbuers, a Signet Fusion Catalyst, one free Epic Cache Key, and even one free new Polymorphic Glyph Exchanger! The Polymorphic Glyph Exchanger allows conversion of a Glyph of one time into that of another. On top of that, there's a new sprint: the Plan 'Bee' motorcycle! It runs on bees. Luckily not the sort of bees sweetlings are!

Accomapnying the Anniversary is the return of the Anniversary Cache for the duration of the event. Rejoice, sweetlings, for you are finally relieved of the Winter Cache! Find out more about the Anniversary Cache's contents here.

For the duration of the Anniversary, all Imbuers, Catalysts, and Agent Boosters are on sale for 40% off, as well.

For a complete, in-depth look at the Anniversary Event, its various rewards, and all that it entails, please see our Anniversary Event Guide!

Be sure to see the official Funcom announcement for the Anniversary Event.

The community itself has much planned for the Anniversary in the form of the MEGAversary community initiative. The MEGAversary hosts events from June 24th to July 7th 2020. Raffles, RP events, PvE events, PvP events, art contests, and even an Alternate Reality Game are all initiated during the MEGAversary! A list of all MEGAversary events can be found here.

Our particle wings quiver with anticipation for all of the many things for you sweetlings to do!