Rakion: Chaos Force/Gameplay

Rakion is a free, three-dimensional, fantasy action online game developed by the South Korean company softnyx. It was in "closed" beta testing from August 11 - 25 2005, meaning that it was in free beta testing in a limited group of countries (which included the United States, the UAE and at a later date, Europe).

It switched from development to open beta testing on October 13, 2005, and the beta testing ended on December 1, 2005. At that point, the game began to follow a similar model to softnyx's other main game, GunBound. Users may purchase "softnyx Cash" with real-world currency. Users can then spend softnyx Cash in order to purchase "Power User" status (which offers various benefits and unlocks further ingame purchases) and items that are often very powerful and not available to the non-fee-paying public.

Story
Very little story has been released for Rakion, however what has been released indicates that the battles in the game are part of a wider series of conflicts over "cell" - a substance that can summon new life, focus energy and several other things. Rakion takes place after a large war - many of the ingame texts reference how things used to be in that war, or that an item is a remnant from that war. There is also Alcon (a place, person, or substance), a great evil which is mentioned as poisoning one map and distorting the normal properties of another creature.

Gameplay
There are three main types of games in Rakion. Stage games are a map where players destroy all the enemies or accomplish another objective. Deathmatch games pit players against each other in a PvP battle. Golem wars are similar to Deathmatches but have a "golem" on each team – when this golem is killed, the team loses.

In Stage games, one or more players race through a map and complete given objectives whilst fighting against enemy creatures - more gold and experience is given for faster completion of the stage.

Deathmatch games (either team or solo) revolve around slaying other players. Each player has only 65% of the health they would normally have on a Stage map or in a Golem War to allow faster kills. The default kill cap is 20, and if a team reaches this the game ends in a victory for said team. Team deathmatches are not rewarding in experience, but provide a decent amount of gold. In Solo Deathmatch games, the first player with 13 kills wins the round. Dead players respawn after seven seconds.

A Boss War is a type of team deathmatch, but instead of reaching a certain amount of kills, the aim is to kill the boss. The boss is the highest level player on the other team, and when you kill another team's boss, you win the round. Like normal deathmatch games, players only get 65% of their normal health and slain players respawn, though the boss does not.

Golem Wars are the classic and most played Rakion game. Golem War can only be played on certain maps. These maps have a base for each team, and in each team's base, there is a golem. The objective of this game is to kill the other team's golem. However one can only damage the other tean's golem if they have the Golden Sword; otherwise they only do 1% the damage they would normally do to it. To obtain the Golden Sword the Golden Golem in the center of the map must be destroyed. The round ends when either all of a team's players are eliminated or when one of the two master golems die.

The gameplay of Rakion is similar to a lot of third or first-person shooter games. One uses the WASD keys to move the character around, and the default camera is FPS style, though the character can be seen. A secondary camera is avaliable, and it is a console control camera. Characters have a variety of combos and attacks, and all characters have a ranged weapon that can be switched on or off by pressing "Q". All ranged attacks require charging except for the Ninja's throwing stars. Camera is rotated by the mouse, and the attack buttons are the left mouse button (C1) and the right mouse button (C2, used most commonly for special attacks and special combos).

Classes
In Rakion, a player is a member of any of the five classes. The choices are Swordsman (sometimes called Warrior), Archer, Blacksmith, Ninja, and Mage. Each class has a melee and a ranged attack, and, under certain conditions, can transform into a mode called "Chaos mode". While in chaos mode, players have more armor, cannot be knocked down, and do a lot more damage. All of a chaos players' attacks go through someone who is guarding.

Swordsman
The swordsman is a male knight wearing light plate armor. Quick in both attacking and movement, softnyx recommends this class for beginners. Its major weakness is a lack of an accurate ranged attack, but it excels in close range.


 * Melee: A longsword with a decent speed and good attack damage. It can do a basic three-hit combo, or can charge for a devastating three-slash special attack. A grip from a powerful swordsman is also a devastating experience, and most players try to either outplay them or range them.


 * Ranged: A small but heavy dagger with a good range and excellent damage. It can be very powerful if the ranged attack of a warrior is maxed. However, it flies very strangely through the air and its path usuallly somewhat veers from the designated target, making it hard for anyone but the pros to aim well with it.


 * Chaos: The swordsman transforms into a blue, humanoid being wearing heavy armor wielding a double-sided sword-spear cross. It can be used for a combo, but is more commony and more well adapted for a lightning-fast attack that spins and hurls the victim into the air. It can also be charged for a crippling running slash that rips apart large targets and other chaos beings.

Archer
Archers are female characters that are armored lightly. They wield a longbow as their ranged weapon and carry a shortsword. Archers have an intensly slow runspeed, but make up for it with their fast rate of arrow fire and quick weapon switching.


 * Melee: The archer has a small gladius-like sword and uses this for a basic 2-hit combo. They can also charge for a special attack with three strikes, though all three strikes will never hit a single target (the first two will). Although this is selected as the default weapon, most archers prefer to use their bow and switch immediately after the round starts.


 * Ranged: As can be expected, the archer uses a bow as its ranged weapon. Arrows have an infinite range, travel extremely fast, and are deadly even at lower levels. The major drawback is that they have to charge, and have a delay time when they are flying through the air. This makes arrows difficult to aim properly. However, even at close range, the archer still fires the arrows quite fast, making it difficult to escape from them. The arrows also temporarily stun an enemy, though most attacks do.


 * Chaos: With a burst of energy the archer transforms into an angelic-looking being with a white aura. Their primary weapon is now their bow, and can shoot up to two arrows per second at maximum speed. The arrows also travel considerably faster than the arrows of a normal archer. Judge is also a favorite skill among chaos archers; after a long charge time five powerful, unguardable arrows are shot. However, the drawbacks to this attack are that it travels slowly and creates visible "streaks" so it is more noticeable than other arrows and that it has a finite range. The archer also has a spinning attack where she spins with her arrow and does damage to anyone nearby. All the ranged attacks knock the enemy far back, and the spin twirls the enemy around for a few seconds.

Blacksmith
Blacksmiths are large, heavyset male characters who wear full plate armor, complete with a helmet. Though they are humanoid, their true race is unknown but they are thought to be related to golems. They can deal out a lot of damage, and sustain incredible amounts themselves.


 * Melee: A large warhammer is swung in a horizontal arc against enemies. It can also charge for a powerful special attack that sends out a strong shockwave of damage. The Blacksmith also has the strongest jumping attack of all the classes. However, even though its attacks are hugely powerful they also come with an equally large amount of delay, leaving him open to grips.


 * Ranged: The throwing axes of Blacksmiths are similar to the throwing knives of the Swordsmen. However, they have a lot more predictable and accurate nature, are much shorter range, and bypass enemy armor bonuses (still does damage to armor). It is the most powerful ranged attack in the game, but is incredibly short range.


 * Chaos: The Blacksmith now looks more like a golem, and is heavily armored, with blue skin. He carries a large flail, and his face is painted. The ground shockwaves created by the flail are about twice the size of the normal ones. He can also charge up for a running pummel attack, or swing his flail around in a wide arc, decimating weaker foes.

Ninja
A minimally-armored female human character who wield a split blade, shurikens and explosives. Ninjas are the fastest characters in the game, and particularly excel at "grip" (grabbing) attacks and special attacks. They have very weak basic attacks, and the lowest health of any class initially. However they are the top when it comes to running and attack speed.


 * Melee: A thin blade that looks like a sai split down the middle. Their attacks are weak but extraordinarily fast. They are the only class that has a 4-strike combo, though this is weak. They can "glide" for a few moments and become invincible. The ninja's true power lies in its deadly grips, which can blow off an entire health bar.


 * Ranged: The ninja takes out shurikens ("dart-knives") and throws them in groups of either three or nine. Although weak, shurikens in groups of three can be thrown without a charging period. However, these do not stun the enemy. Shurikens in groups of nine require the ninja to charge, but do far more damage and stun like all other attacks. Groups of three fan out in a cone-like formation, while groups of nine fall in a short-range shotgun pattern.


 * Chaos: The ninja transforms into a demonic-looking woman with a red glow. The half-sai turns into a short, thin, curved blade and is now wielded underhand. She can now dash forwards while slashing, and the combo attack finishes with an explosion that has the largest area of effect in the game. She can also spin around in a "phoenix"; this attack bypasses armor and attacks health directly. Also, the ninja can now throw stars in groups of 18, and, like the Phoenix, these bypass armor and directly damage health.

Mage
A humanoid character with an undefined gender (softnyx has said that they are both male and female). They are designed to be support and long-range bombardment characters, and they are the only class that can heal. They have three immensely powerful ranged attacks. However, at the cost of this extra power, they are the slowest moving class in Rakion, and their attack speed is second slowest to the Blacksmith.


 * Melee: A staff or cane that can be used for a weak whack attack. It can also be used for casting a row of magical ice pillars at an enemy, and although they are unguardable they come with a huge delay. Their front grip is also unique in the sense that it can freeze victims in a block of ice, leaving them open to any attack, and does not knock down. Other than that, it can cast a hurricane that pushes all enemies away from it, and it can cast healing orbs.


 * Ranged: The mage takes out a mace or a wand and uses it to cast a fireball attack and a homing meteor attack. The fireballs are thrown at a target, but must be charged first. They explode after 1.5 seconds, comparable to grenades. The meteors are more powerful than the fireballs, but require the mage to "lock on" to a target for 1.5 seconds. They are easier to avoid than the fireball because they are larger and more obvious.


 * Chaos: A larger and more powerful mage is summoned and the smaller mage controls it by sitting on its back (similar to a piggyback ride). This larger mage can cast a far more powerful version of the ice attack, sending out three lines at 10 degree intervals. It can also cast a faster (both in lock-on time and travel speed) version of the mage's meteor and can heal all allied players in an area of effect. This is the only chaos that does not have a damage-dealing jump attack; rather, it is just an animation.

Advancement
Although Rakion is primarily an action game, it still allows character customisation and has an EXP points system like an RPG. No new techniques or moves are ever unlocked for a character. EXP is awarded at the end of rounds depending on performance in that round, and at the end of Stage games (which award far more EXP). After every level up, the player may go into the inventory screen and may assign three stat points to various categories (more with Power User status). Stat points can be stored and not spent, and will stay 'free' until spent. Character levels also serve as a basic ranking system, and characters with too disparate levels cannot face each other in most circumstances. Equipment and creatures can also be bought using ingame gold or Cash. Equipment brings further stat bonuses and special effects, though in a few cases some equipment actually lowers some stats. Equipment and creatures are also level-limited, meaning that only characters of at least certain level may purchase a particular item. The inventory is account-wide, meaning that any item not equipped by a character on that account is available for use by all characters on that account.

Equipment falls into a few basic categories:
 * Helmets: It is necessary to protect a character's head area. Not only does this equipment grant bonus armor, but also may provide bonus cell points (for summoning) or bonus hit points. Helmets generally cost the most Gold out of all pieces of armor, but this is because they upgrade several favorable attributes; the higher-leveled helmets upgrade Attack Speed and the number of Cell points you can carry.
 * Shoulders: Shoulder pads generally upgrade a mediocre amount of armor and life, but cell destruction will receive a higher bonus.
 * Arms: Arm armor have a very large Health boost, but they don't boost any attack attributes.
 * Body Armor: The most crucial armor, the body armor provides unmatched protection for your character, and has a chance of granting other benefits as well.
 * Primary Weapon: Every warrior needs weapons, and many types of class-specific weapons are available to them. Weapons are very diverse and have a variety of effects, most granting damage to normal, special, and grip attack modes. Some weapons even deal bonus damage to creatures, while others have the disadvantage of being slow.
 * Ranged Weapon: Each character in Rakion is armed with two weapons, the second being a ranged weapon. These weapons grant bonus damage to ranged attack and sometimes normal attack, which stacks with the bonuses received from your primary weapon, thus boosting your damage significantly.
 * Rings: Characters can wear up to three rings, each providing a special bonus. The bonuses provided range from simple speed increases to damage increase. Some(pain of cell) even decreases the cell points needed to summon a cell. (~4% of cell)
 * Amulets: An amulet or locket can be worn around the character's neck. Similar to rings, amulets also provide nice bonuses, except amulets generally have a greater range of effects since only one can be worn at a time. Some even increases chaos time. (two moons/extreme)

Creatures
There are several creature types in Rakion, with most available for purchase in the shop. Creatures gain EXP of their own when used, and can level up. If a creature levels up, it costs more Cell to summon, but has better stats. It will also sell for more gold at the shop. Creatures are the enemies in Stage games. Some creatures can only be bought with Cash, and others can only be bought with Power User status. In the following list, [P] indicates a creature that can only be bought when Power User status is active, and [C] indicates a creature that can only be bought with softnyx Cash.
 * Nak: A weak and slow-moving spider that spits short-range acid at a target. Their cell summon cost is lower than that of any other creature.  A single Blacksmith hammer slam is enough to take out multiple Naks.  Naks tend to come in large swarms when in Stage games.
 * Blood Nak: [C] A Nak that has been twisted by the power of Alcon, the Blood Nak does more damage but has less life. Blood Naks also have a significantly faster attack rate.
 * Panzer: An armored knight wielding a halberd. Panzers have much more damage resistance than Naks.
 * Assault Panzer: [C] A Panzer that does a lot more damage but has less life. Assault Panzers are much more agile than their standard counterparts, thus they attack and move faster.  They are also programmed to attack opponents from behind.
 * Crossbow: A dwarf wielding a crossbow. These creatures fire crossbow bolts at enemies at close range, but are slow and inaccurate.  They also kick characters if one approaches them.  Crossbows can be damaged by any attack when they are knocked down, unlike many other creatures.
 * Blazer: A red-garbed mage that hovers above the ground.  The Blazers fire large bolts of energy at their target, dealing high damage with a knockdown effect.  However, they are very slow and do not move from their initial position unless knocked to somewhere else. During a stage, they have also been called "mages" for some particullar reason.
 *  Sky Blazer: [C] A Blazer that hovers high above the ground, making it hard to hit with melee attacks.  They also have slightly more life and damage output than regular Blazers.
 * Soul Cannon: [C] A half-size golem-like creature with a cannon forming the end of its right arm. It uses its left arm to support and fire the cannon. The cannonball deals heavy splash damage but the Soul Cannon can't attack air units.  When a Soul Cannon is defeated, it automatically self-destructs after a few seconds' counting.
 * Long Bow: [C] An thin elf-like creature that wields a deadly and accurate bow.  Similar to the Crossbow, it has more life, more attack power, knockdown effect and faster attack speed.  However, they have no close range attack.  Player-bought longbows fire homing arrows that are extremely accurate and can do high amounts of damage.  Similarly to crossbows, they can be damaged even if they are knocked down.
 * Golem: [P] A giant clay humanoid that attacks by punching and throwing rocks. It has the best damage resistance, but it has a very slow movement speed.  Golems form the key component of one PvP game mode.
 * Iron Golem: [C] A darker colored Golem with considerably higher endurance and slightly higher damage output than the original Golem.
 * Taurus [P] A powerful red minotaur. The minotaur has a rapid charging attack, and gores enemies with his powerful horns, sending them flying.  A single double-gore from a Taurus can wipe off a full armor or health bar.
 * Dragon [P] A huge red dragon that soars above the field. The dragon has two main attacks, one: a long range fireball from the dragon's mouth that knocks down and is capable of dealing large amounts of damage.  The second is a shorter-range flame breath attack which quickly strips away enemy armor and health.  If a character is close to the dragon, and has low health, the dragon will come down with its claws raised and attack them.  The dragon has lower hit points than the taurus or golem.

PvP Game modes
In all team-based PvP modes, the game automatically balances team numbers between rounds. If teams have a one player difference, a player is shuffled back and forth each round. In team-based games, players cannot hurt their own side. All PvP game modes have an option to select the level range of players who can join the game. Some higher ranges provide bonus EXP. A special choice for this setting is Basic Mode. In Basic Mode, all statistics are set back to basic Level 1 statistics. The player's equipment statistics are not used in this mode, although appearance is still affected. Basic Mode also prevents the use of any creatures besides the most basic creature that can be used by players of any level.
 * Solo Deathmatch: A battle royale between all of the players, over a set number of rounds. Each round ends when the time runs out or a certain kill limit is reached.  The players have less health and armour than normal, and slain players respawn after 7 seconds with a short invinciblility effect following their respawn.
 * Team Deathmatch: This mode is the same as Solo Deathmatch, except each player is on one of two teams, and must kill players of the opposing team.
 * Golem War: In this mode, players are assigned to a team. Each team has a "Master Golem" (a Golem with the color of the team it belongs to).  Players must kill the opposing team's Master Golem whilst protecting their own.  However, attacking the opponent's Golem does negligible damage in this mode.  A player may do normal damage to a Master Golem by obtaining the Golden Sword.  The Golden Sword is awarded to the player that kills the "Gold Golem" in the middle of the map.  (The Gold Golem is a Golem with separate hit point bars for each team's attacks.  Attacks inflicted upon the Gold Golem deal normal damage.)  When a player recieves the Golden Sword, they glow gold (the Golden Sword is not a new weapon but an effect) and appear on the map radar of every person in the game.  If the person bearing the Golden Sword is killed, the Gold Golem revives.  Unlike the other PvP modes, players do not respawn until the next round, and the round ends in defeat for a team when all players on the team are killed.  If the round time ends and both team's golems are still alive, the team whose golem has the most health are the winners of the round.  Golem War has several unique awards for high performance in a match, providing extra gold and EXP to leading players.
 * Boss Mode: A team-based headhunter mode. Each team has a designated Boss that they must protect while attempting to defeat the enemy team's Boss at the same time. In this mode, there are no healing capules on any of the maps, however Mage healing moves still work.  All non-Boss players have 65% of their normal health and can respawn without penalty.  The game ends when one team's boss is killed.

PvP Maps
Rakion provides players with several maps with unique properties to suit their preferences. The following are some of the PvP maps in Rakion:
 * Gravity: A symmetrical, elongated map with three tiers (including a central narrow bridge and an underground cavern) and several 'gravity lifts'.  A player, whilst standing on a gravity lift, can jump and he/she will automatically float up onto the clear energy platform above.  There are a total of four gravity lifts in this map.  If a player is blocked from floating up the lift (by another player's body or attack, Mage wind, or a creature), they slowly float back down to the bottom, unable to move laterally.
 * Twin Castle: This map is a long map with two passages to the centre from each team's base.  The center is a huge arena broken up only by two small walls (which can be jumped over).  Above the arena lie four cage areas, two on each side of the map.  These are accessible via teleports off the central passage to the main arena.  Only ranged attacs may hit other players through the cage walls.
 * Covolt Peak: This map is a very high, round map resembling a stylised medieval town suspended in the sky (though players cannot fall off).  It consists of three floors - namely the basement (which is divided into two compartments inaccessible from each other), the main floor (composed of only a thin walkway upon the outer edge of the map) and the upper floor (a central floating platform).  Travelling up levels is achieved by warps, but the only way down levels is jumping or falling off edges.
 * Draco Valley: This map is the biggest map in the game, where the bases of each team are huge. Players must use the teleporters in their base to enter the small room which connects to the vast arena where the Gold Golem is located in a Golem War.
 * Mammoth: This map is an underground ice cave with a huge frozen mammoth head that lies on the side of the map.  The floor of this map is slippery on some parts, making movement based on inertia rather than direct input (however the Ninja's block-dash still works at normal speed).  There is a water pool in the middle of the map where players move at a lesser speed.  However, there are no other disadvantages when fighting in the pool (characters will not drown).
 * Cage: This map is an asymmetrical map that is formed in a more complicated way than other maps.  It consists of long, narrow passages and huge combat areas.  Boxes of various sizes are also scattered around the map - these can be used as platforms, and they are invincible to attack.
 * Underground Altar: This is a linear, two-story map with three annexes for each team's Golem and for the Gold Golem in a Golem War.  The room where the Gold Golem resides is located in the middle of the map and can only be accessed when one is on the bridge connecting the rooms where the teams spawn.
 * Snake Temple: This map contains narrow passages and sliding doors (similar to the ones in Tomb of the King).  In the middle of the map, there are many suspended platforms, which require good jumping skill to maneuver on.
 * Icefield: This map is a large iced and grassy 5-chamber area having one chamber for each master golem, one for the golden golem and the other two as player starting points. Inside the chamber for the golden golem there are 4 entrances, and each door looks exactly the same as the others.

Events
Similar to softnyx's previous game, Gunbound, Rakion also has seasonal events that bring rewards for players or discounts for Cash. The following is a list of some of the events that have been released so far (note: not all are technically considered events)
 * Beta Testing (Power-User Benefit) - Players who cash charged during the testing period received an extra month for free.
 * End Beta Testing: Users who played Rakion in its two test versions received a ring that granted movement and attack speed bonuses.
 * February 14, 2006: Stage 1 of the Valentines' Day event has been released. It resembles the stage "Holy Springs". Players who complete this stage with ranking A or higher will receive 1000 cash, which can be used to buy several items. This event will last until March 21st, with one stage being released every week. A raffle for 30,000 gold and a few thousand cash is also taking place. Players can receive 1000 additional cash for every event stage they accomplish. Also, an additional 1000 cash will be awarded for finishing all 5 stages. A player can receive 6000 cash in total.
 * April 2006: Easter event in which a player logged in to the website and played a "find the difference" game with five different sets of pictures, with a total timelimit of 200 seconds. The player recieved prizes the first time they beat each particular set.  The prizes were - First Set: a Nak; Second Set: a Panzer; Third Set: a Blood Nak; Fourth Set: a Assault Panzer; Fifth Set: a Blood Nak and a Assault Panzer.  The prizes were cumulative, so a player could get as a maximum: 1 nak, 1 panzer, 2 blood naks, and 2 assault panzers.
 * June 2006: An event called "Viva WorldCup" was held by the Rakion team. The event commemorates the real world event, the Fifa WorldCup. Viva was separated into two rounds, Round One and Round Two.
 * In Round One, if a power user charged for an amount of Cash then he or she would get that same amount in gold. For example, if a player charges 10,000 cash, then that player would also get 10,000 gold. If the player charges higher than 50,000 cash, that person would have their creature upgraded. For example, a panzar would evolve to become an assault panzar and a nak would become a blood nak.
 * In Round Two, the player can purchase two tickets.
 * One ticket can be purchased for 10,000 gold. This ticket allows the player to select which Fifa WorldCup soccer teams will move to Round 16, the Quarter Finals, and the Semi Finals. If 12 countries are right out of Round 16, the player gets a level 20 blazer. If 6 countries are chosen correctly out of the Quarter Finals, the player gets a level 30 golem. If 3 countries are right out of the Semi Finals, the player gets a level 45 taurus. If all the countries are correctly chosen, the player gets a level 80 dragon.
 * Another Round Two ticket can be purchased for 1,000 cash or 10,000 gold. This ticket allows the player to select the winning country and by how much they win by. The earlier the ticket is submitted, the greater the rewards.
 * October 2006: The Halloween event was introduced. Pumpkins randomly appeared when a player killed a creature or person.  Every pumpkin collected gave 10EXP and 20 gold.  A special pumpkin gave a player a full chaos meter.  As well as a pumpkin, amulets were also dropped from dead people.  They gave 1.5 times the EXP during that game, or if the player was a power user (and thus already receiving that bonus) the player would recieve 1.5 times the gold instead.  Cash charges also got 10% more cash.  This event was prematurely stopped within a day of launch, due to large scale abusing and hacking.

Profanity filter
The in-game chat system automatically replaces most profanity with the word "LOVE", as in "You mother LOVEing LOVEer!" The filter isn't limited to whole words, so typing the word "class" will appear as "clLOVE". In the past, the filter could be bypassed by typing a ' in the middle of the word as an escape sequence. However, this bypass was patched.