Dear Testers,

welcome to the summer 2024 test server! Threatening the peaceful coasts of Tibia, a gigantic unstoppable plant has emerged! Captured by Dr. Marrow and destined to destroy anything in its way, players will have to enter the monster itself and find a way to avert disaster. And as if that was not enough, Dr. Marrow mobilised aggressive Quara henchmen to take control over. Work together and rise to stop the savage march of Podzilla!

This thread deals with the following quest: The Rise of Podzilla - Missions

You can use it to inform us about:

• Quest or map bugs that require a more detailed explanation
  
• Issues with quest logic or progress, certain actions that got you stuck
  
• Inconsistencies in the quest or map
  
• Inconsistencies with the missions that are spread accross all hunting grounds of the area.

It also helps us if you let us know when (e.g. before or after a specific change) and how you tested something so that we know which version you are referring to.

Please report obvious bugs via the bug report function ingame (press Ctrl+Z):

• Map bugs can be reported by right-clicking on a map field and selecting the entry "Report Coordinate" from the context menu.
  
• Mistakes in NPC chats can be reported by right-clicking on the NPC text in question and selecting the context menu entry "Report Message".

If you want to make us aware of an important balancing topic that is directly related to this update, please use the designated threads.

While exploring "Podzilla", join other players to overcome the dangers of this area for various benefits and keep an eye out for optional tasks with potential rewards. And as always, enjoy!

Kind regards,
Lionet

Official Replies:

Sailing Delays, Cocoon Doom and Bloom Boom (June 05)
Amber Sickles, Map Dynamics and Map Markers (June 10)
Diver's Shortcut (June 13)

Gladiador Uzumaki and Elder Aaron: The cooldown for the ship is only 10 minutes, thus not included in the voodoo or assistant resets. Try again and you should be able to embark once more! Resetting the whole quest should work every time and not lock you out of it.

Hello everyone, I hope you had a great start and already took a deep dive into all the new content of this summer's update!

Galba and Unlegitrod: Players will indeed "strand" on Meriana if they lose, there's a harbour and you can resume your quest from there to Edron quite easily. It's basically the price for drowning in the current of the high seas. Players will land in Edron for convenience, however, if they abort the sailing sequence or get kicked out.

Wrzosow Kres: Resetting the quest via the assistant will not initialise the cooldown for the boat as it is only about 10 minutes. Captain Seahorse, however, will now mention that the wait is "a few minutes" so players get a hint that the wait here is rather short This was implemented to prevent the blocking of this sequence, even on the test server. In any case, the cooldown currently will also be active if you already completed the sailing part and want to use the shortcut. In that case there should be no delay at all and I will change this with one of the next updates.

Dark Black Magician: Glad that you liked the little sequence and also the new sprites! Yes, I know exactly what you mean, some of my colleagues quite regularly suggest basically the same (won't give any names but they know who they are ) I hope the rest of the update will be just as intuitive and fun for you guys, there's a lot to discover!

Hero Reis: Thank you, I hope you will enjoy the rest of Podzilla just as much! We will take a look at the spawn rates of the other creatures. They are indeed not necessary to complete the mission but are variants of what can hatch from each cocoon. Another interesting part is the quest counter itself. As you already mentioned, it will grant the kill to the highest damage dealer per our usual mechanics. We wanted to use that mechanism to make players basically fight and work specifically towards that kill and therefore also reduced the number of necessary kills to 20, once in the whole questline. I will take another look at this part as well, chances are it will stay like this but we will see

Unlegitrod: Thanks for your report, we indeed made out several locations where you could escape enemy damage. This will be fixed in one of the next updates as it was not intended in that case!

Picture: Thanks for your detailed feedback! We decided to allow players a bit more freedom to explore the new area. You can basically just enter the plant and start hunting without actually taking part in the main questline at first. However, you will soon get to a point where you cannot progress until you accept the quest to find out what is happening and what you can do to help as a player

I will also take a look at the amber sickle drops. It will randomly break after a handful of tries. Concerning the multiple blooms, we're currently looking into it and are reproducing the situation.
There is no time limit for the "Heart Attack" mission, the counter with 2 should be a consequence of it going up the very second the mission was completed.

Sevenlord: The Rootkraken fight is currently being evaluated considering all feedback we gathered so far! Any further changes will be announced in the designated thread: The Rise of Podzilla Quest / Tasks / Boss

Drake Feriel: The cocoons will spawn and be active for 2 hours each time the rootthing bucklers are defeated and the roots are completely cut from the crimson blossom. The lifetime for the thornlilly and blightling has been reduced to the amount of the pupated rootthings.

Treerings: The sailing sequence should indeed have a certain level of randomness. I took another look at it and so far I'm quite happy with the mix of small events during that part. On the other hand, it is only a matter of doing it once and there is no "real" harm in dying, other than stranding and having to return to the starting point, so these rather small "punishments" during the turn should be just about right.
We raised the drop chance of the amber sickle as well as the expire time of the item (it's two hours now). There should be a lot more sickles now to help cutting the roots This change will go online with the next update.
The healing of the heart is indeed only briefly explained and mostly in-world, I will look into this as well.

@all: Completing the Mission "Striking Roots" will not only spawn the cocoons for the "Symbiosis" mission (for all players) but also reduce the damage impact of spells for all rootthings for two hours (for every player who took part in . The two hour cooldown is started everytime the mission "striking roots" is done by any players in the huntingground. Furthermore, completing the mission "Heart Attack" will also affect the hunting ground: all Quara spells in the dungeons will be stronger if the heart is burning. Healing the heart and preventing the fires will prevent the Quara from strengthening.

Hero Reis: For the heart to be "healed" and trigger the weakening of the Quara, it needs to be fully healed and not be in the "burning" state. And you can do it as often as you like and help other players anytime

Podzilla's Finest is a very special brew and can only be obtained from Petaloid by collecting these exotic leaves. Concerning the outfit addon however, you need to have something else than tea

Dark Black Magician:
We will take another look at the amber sickle. The expire time should be displayed after one of the next updates. The Quara are still being evaluated, can't make an estimate on any changes yet, however. Check the designated thread, too, for any announcements of balancing changes! The amount of pupated rootthings to kill for the "Symbiosis" mission is based on the fact that each player has to complete this only once to progress. That's a nice idea for a shortcut, we are currently looking into the navigation of the area overall, I'll post any news of potential changes right here in this very thread! There are currently no changes planned regarding the Blight Bug, Grove Guardian, Herd Weevil or Common Beetle.

Shyx Sho: I'm indeed quite a fan of dynamic environments and interactive changing maps. In this case we talked about a variety of mechanisms and effects we could add to affect and change the environment. We ultimately decided to keep to do one larger version of the map that stays consistent and (also due to its size) refrained from doing purely cosmetic changes. The final concept you see now shows a certain progression of the Quara invasion and the destruction of the plant to get to the precious resin. If you like traps, you should have an eye out for future updates as I intend to implement a few ideas concerning the use of traps and hidden machinations It's too bad I can't give an estimate for something like this yet but there are so many ideas and projects we'd like to develop, we would severely limit ourselves if we'd do that

Elder Aaron: Thank you for the feedback, Two Lips will add a marker now, this change should be online with one of the next updates!

@all: To further optimise the flow and gameplay of the hunting ground, specifically after exploring the whole area, I have implemented an additional shortcut to the lowest level of Podzilla: this allows players that have access to the last level and the battle with Dr. Marrow, to travel an alternate route that is shorter and independent from the rest of the area.

To find it, go to the right of the the first level of Podzilla's "stalk" and down the stairs of the wrecked ship that sits entangled there. You will find a vortex at the end of a plank that can be dived through if your character "knows where to go". You will then be able to traverse an underwater tunnel that connects this part with the bottom of the ocean and the laboratory of Dr. Marrow. You can also travel back up via this route. Have fun and remember to bring your scuba gear

@Hero Reis: The heart has a health bar but to actually "heal" it with the "potent dew", the counter atop the heart (which counts the fires the Quara Kindlers started in that room) needs to be down to 1 (technically 0 which is not shown). The heart's HP will heal a bit with the use of the dew and you can also heal it yourself but that's technically flavour. It will actually self-restore as soon as the fires are put out, that is the important thing to do. As long as those are burning, it's regenerative abilities will not suffice to fully heal it.

It decided to make the counter go down instead of up (and be independent from the actual HP) as it should reflect the searing fires in the area and the level of burning/threat that has to be lowered, instead of the current health state of the heart (which can vary, with or without the fires as it's basically designed to be an independent living organism)

@Linda: Thanks for the feedback! The alternative route should significantly shorten the traversal and reduce that threat, while indeed not eliminating it completely. Concerning the mix of Quara of the area, we are still evaluating the balance and general progression. Any potential adjustements will be announced in the appropriate thread.

Sha Dowh: The area has been widened a bit and some objects rearranged. Concerning the heart and the strengthening of Quara: if the flames around the heart are never extinguished and the heart stays burning, the Quara will stay strengthened. Once players have quenched enough flames and the counter has reached 1, the heart is considered "healed" and the Quara won't be as strong for about 2 hours. It's a difficult task but in turn, this positive effect can be prolonged indefinitely as long as someone sees that the heart will never catch fire again

Wladca Bialych Wegorzy: The "stack" that currently shows a 5 should show a 1 (it does not change) an will be fixed before the official release. It shows that the positive effect is active and the Quara are weakened by a noticeable amount.

Galba: Thanks for your feedback, this bug has been fixed now on all relevant locations will not be present after release!

Dark Black Magician: Thank you for the feedback! There will actually be an additional change to the shortcut that didn't fit into the test server window (see below).

Indeed, the bestiary is a great collector's tool, I myself am quite fond of "virtual albums" like this Not every monster will make its way into the bestiary, however.

The seed idea is quite nice for house owners! As usual I can't make any promises here but we will keep this in mind!

@all:
Several adjustments will be made to the shortcut before release that did not fit into the test server window: after this, it should be possible to reach the access to the boss even faster, with almost no contact to Qara Looters. Furthermore, the area with the teleporter will be separated a bit more, so that certain monsters should not be in direct vicinity of the boss access.

Thanks everyone participating in this summer's test server and all your feedback! I hope you had a lot of fun, adventure and pleasant surprises! See you next test server and I wish you a good time until then - enjoy the release!