Hello, partners! The moment has come — the Spirit Cave is returning on a regular basis. It was very nice to see so many warm reviews about the first version of the new Spirit Cave. 

The new Spirit Cave is mainly similar to the one you've already had a chance to play during the Harvest Fair, but now it's even bigger and more interesting! You can expect the new Spirit Cave Leaderboard, new abilities, new enemies, and, of course, new rewards! And get ready for a list of pleasant details in the new update besides the Cave. But let's go through everything step by step!

Conquer Spirits and Claim Your Prizes

From now on, the Spirit Cave is a regularly recurring activity, available  every 2 days to everyone starting from level 35. For those who don't want to wait, there's an option to speed up the timer for a modest fee, like in Canyon Trials.

As you embark on your journey into the Cave, apart from engaging in thrilling shootouts, you will pursue two main objectives:

• Achieve a reward for your current progress.
• Claim a prestigious spot on the leaderboard to unlock even greater rewards on a weekly basis.

New Leaderboard

The Spirit Cave Leaderboard participants compete within Leagues. The Spirit Cave has now been divided into Bronze, Silver, and Gold leagues, each containing multiple divisions. Your character level determines your initial division, ranging from Bronze 5 to Silver 1. As you advance, both the challenge and the number of rooms increase; you will face more enemies, and they will become stronger and more variable. 

• Bronze League — 9 rooms and 3 bosses.
• Silver League — 12 rooms and 4 bosses.
• Gold League — 15 rooms and 5 bosses.

Future battles define your place within your group. The League determines the size of the group you get sorted into. 

The Spirit Cave leaderboard starts each Saturday (12:00 UTC), ends on Friday (12:00 UTC). The new competition will begin 24 hours after the previous one ends.

The Leaderboard counts your best attempt. Success boosts your League, granting more valuable prizes. Success boosts your League, granting more valuable prizes.

You get points for every killed creature in Spirit Cave. The tougher the foe, the more points you get for dealing with them!

Leaderboard Rewards

Your reward for participating in the leaderboard depends on two main factors: the league (and division) you competed in, and the position you secured within your group. The more prestigious the league and the higher the place achieved, the better the rewards. Possible prizes include:

• Gold Nuggets (starting from the TOP-1 place in the Bronze I).
• Native American rare weapon (of various enchantment levels).
• Healing pet crackers.
• Pack of valuable resources.
• Alcohol.

Treasure Chests

As promised, treasure chests have been added to the cave. Now, after you triumph over each boss, you're rewarded with the opportunity to open a treasure chest. Inside, you'll find an array of exciting loot, including Native American weapons or armor, along with a variety of valuable items. 

Spirit Cave Improvements

After the initial launch during Halloween, several changes were made to the gameplay of the Cave. The goal was to keep it exciting and memorable and also make it more fun to play again and again for players at different levels. The number of rooms you go through and the number of bosses to conquer now depends on your specific league and division. Furthermore, an array of new abilities has been added! Keep in mind though, unlocking the full spectrum requires advancing through the leagues, ensuring a gradual and rewarding progression.

Abilities

As you may already know, the Spirit Cave gameplay is centered around exclusive special abilities. To begin, you select one ability from a randomized set of three and then construct your ability tree from that point onward.

New Common Abilities

With this update, new ‘Common’ abilities have been introduced. Unlike the Uncommon and Rare ones, these operate independently, and you can't enhance or combine them. Nevertheless, they will prove to be quite valuable, and when combined strategically, they will significantly simplify and diversify your journey through the Cave. A total of 12 new abilities have been added:

• Great Hunter Spirit — Increases damage.
• Fast Coyote Spirit — Increases Attack speed.
• Mighty Bison Spirit — Increases Defense.
• Wild Mustang Spirit — Increases Running speed.
• Light Butterfly Spirit — Increases Dodge chance.
• Strong Head — Stunning effects do not apply to the player.
• Monitor lizard's Blood — Bleeding and poison effects do not apply to the player.
• Swift River — Slowdown effects do not apply to the player.
• Totem Beast's Strength — Increases Pet damage.
• Gift of the Four Paths — After completing a room, you are offered a choice of 4 abilities instead of 3.
• Healing Wind — After completing a room, recover a certain percent of health from the max amount.
• Second Life— When health drops to 0, it heals for a certain percentage and prevents damage for a few seconds.

Uncommon and Rare Abilities

Let's refresh your memory (or introduce you to it if you've just joined) about what Uncommon and Rare abilities are, how they work, and what their combination provides. In total, there are 8 Uncommon abilities:

1. Ghost Wolf leader — Summons 2 Ghost Wolves. 
2. Sweeping Slash — Melee weapons that hit a single target now hit in a cone. Melee weapons that hit in a cone now hit in a circle.
3. Chill bite — Dealing damage with weapons slows down enemies.
4. Frontier Ricochet — Revolver and rifle shots ricochet to the nearest 2 enemies. Damage to additional targets is reduced by 50%.
5. Thunder Might — Periodically, lightning deals damage to an enemy
6. Long-Barrel Prayer — Shotgun shooting range increased. More targets receive damage.
7. Demolition Spirit — Summons a companion who throws dynamite every few seconds, dealing area damage.
8. Splitting Feather Strike — Shoots a few arrows. Bows deal more damage.

Each ability has the potential to be elevated to the Rare level, enhancing its effectiveness and lethality!

Epic abilities

By upgrading two rare abilities with distinct enhancements, you can unlock an epic ability, blending their effects together. Keep in mind that not all abilities are compatible, so feel free to experiment with various combinations to attain epic results. During a single trip to the Spirit Cave, in most cases, you can activate more than one epic ability.

• Grizzly Rampage — You turn into a mighty Spirit Bear.
• Winter’s Hug — You take less damage. Enemies receive damage each time they attack you.
• Ice Trail — You leave an icy area behind you, slowing down enemies and dealing them some damage.
• Eagle Eye — Revolver and rifle shots deal critical damage.
• Double-Barrel — Shotguns shoot double.
• Fire Scatter — Shotgun shots set enemies on fire, dealing damage over a few seconds.
• Boomshot — Arrows deal area damage.
• Stun Ambush — Places a trap every few seconds, stunning enemies and dealing area damage.

New enemies

Along with the introduction of new abilities, the variety of enemies in the Cave has been broadened as well.

• Uktena (Boss!) — A gigantic serpent leaving behind a poisonous trail.
• Ghost of Buffalo (Boss!) — Don't stand in its way when it attempts to stab you!
• Ghost Bear — The beast with a strong AOE attack but slow movement speed.
• Shooter's Ghost — Spirit of the native american warrior with a rifle. You can’t avoid their shots like archer ones.
• Marksman Ghost — Their red rifles may cause a bleeding effect.
• Warrior's Ghost — These spirits will try to hit you with their axes.
• Frost Warrior Ghost — Even more dangerous than previous ones. They have blue axes that can slow down you!
• Nimerigar's Ghost — Pretty dangerous ancient creatures with sharp claws!

New special effects and special attacks

Please note that bosses and some ghosts can inflict negative effects on your character. These can be countered with skillful maneuvering or special abilities.

• Slowing down — Now some enemies can slow you down. Spirits with this ability are armed with blue axes.
• Bleeding — Now some enemies can inflict a bleeding wound on you, causing you to continue losing health points for a period of time after the injury. Spirits with this ability are armed with red rifles.
• Red lightning — Wendigo and Dzi-dzi-bonda attempt to strike lightning directly at you, not just randomly in the cave. However, you still have half a second to escape from the impact zone.

Updated Abilities

Based on the results of the first Spirit Cave launch, some familiar abilities have been modified for a better experience.

• Accessing Abilities — Certain abilities are now unlocked progressively, becoming available as you advance through specific leagues and divisions. To discover which abilities you have access to and how to combine them to get epic ones, explore the starting hall of the cave. There, you can examine the hints on the floor around the altar for guidance.
• Demolition Spirit — Now it hurls a stick of dynamite at the closest target behind him, and another at the nearest target behind you. An animation that shows the preparation for the throw has also been incorporated. The damage from explosions has been slightly reduced.
• Ghost Wolf leader — Ghost wolves no longer focus on the same target every time; now, each wolf attacks the nearest enemy.
• Frontier Ricochet — The number of ricochets increased to 3 (6 for rare ones). 
• Stun Ambush — Traps now appear more frequently.
• Splitting Feather Strike — Now ability gives a stronger damage boost.
• Ice Trail — Slow down effect slightly decreased.
• Grizzly Rampage — The damage dealt in bear form has been decreased, and the attack speed has been reduced.

Endless fight

Another essential change is that, upon successfully defeating each boss, you'll come across chests containing valuable loot. If you feel that you've had enough, you'll have the option to leave the Spirit Cave. However, if you're strong enough, after conquering the final boss, you'll face a challenge for the bravest — an Endless Wave of opponents.

Once you kill the last boss, a huge wave of Nimerigar's Ghosts will start attacking you. They will keep appearing until your hit points and weapon supplies are depleted. 

Luckily you have the option to stop the battle on your own using a special Red Button, and all opponents will instantly vanish. However, resuming the battle after a break won't be possible. This final battle will determine the best of the best because whoever slays more spirits will earn more points and claim a higher spot on the Leaderboard.

Fear not if defeated; you won't die. Instead, you'll remain standing with 1 HP, much like in the Canyon Trials.

Other changes

A few more changes you might be interested in:

• Elimination of empty rooms — Removed small empty rooms at the beginning of every new stage.
• Improved enemies' behavior — They will no longer “stop moving” when they are far from you.
• New achievement ‘Spirit Cave Trials Winner’ — Get into the top Leagues of the Spirit Cave.

Canyon Trials Leaderboard Adjustments

Following the addition of the Spirit Cave leaderboard, specific adjustments have been made to the Canyon Trials leaderboard to accommodate this new feature.

• The Canyon Trials leaderboard now starts each Thursday (12:00 UTC), ends on Wednesday (12:00 UTC).
• Rewards Update — The rewards have been enhanced to include valuable Gear. At the same time, Native American weapons and armor are now exclusively available through the Spirit Cave Leaderboard.

Quest Leaderboard has gone

With the introduction of the new leaderboard, the Quest Leaderboard, an outdated feature not in line with fair league mechanics, has been removed after much consideration. Rest assured, the quests themselves will stay, and you can keep completing them daily as usual!

Other Improvements

• Trade twice more! — By popular demand, the quantity of resources available for trade or sale has been doubled.
• More durability for Tier 1&2 — The weapons and armor of these tiers became more durable.
• Improved Gears — The Gears that enhance the durability of crafted armor have been improved. Now they provide a more substantial increase.
• Dismantling event weapons and armor — Now almost every item in the game can be disassembled, even if you don’t have a corresponding blueprint.
• Uncommon bows require wood of the corresponding tier, which made their craft cheaper.
  Please note! As soon as you leave the current location, it will refresh, and items in the chest will be lost.
• Fertility elixir for pets — Now, if you wish to replenish your pet's fertility, you can purchase a special elixir, just like you can for horses. You can even restore fertility for a pet that had no fertility from the outset! Currently available exclusively in the VIP Shop.
• Additional enhancements — various other fixes and improvements.