They’re finally here! Expeditions have launched! Or, at least, the beta. You can find the complete details here. In short, Expeditions are special quests that are customized according to how you found them. During the months of April and May, when you turn in a piece of art that meets activity requirements, you have a 100% chance of obtaining a Chronocompass. 

What’s so special about a Chronocompass? You can turn them in to generate three special quests. You may pick the quest that best suits your character and complete it. Many things can only be obtained from Expeditions. This includes the special Crafting Familiars, Blessing Items, Tamable Dragons, and even a special quest that ends with a new element: Stellar. More on that later. Although Expeditions have plenty to discover for low-level dragons and low-prestige Riders, more developed characters shine and can find rarer Expeditions.

Some Small Notes:

• You may only post one Expedition comment per day.
• You can post without completing previous Expedition comments.
• To help with testing this month, you may use dragons without a Rite of Passage.
• If you received a Chronocompass from an event, you may choose who does the expedition. Otherwise, the character that found it will always be the Expeditioner. 

Expected Changes After Beta:

• Drop rates of a Chronocompass will be greatly reduced.
• After beta, Rites of Passage will be required, just like any other challenge.
• Limitations may be placed on what sort of prompts can drop them.
• A vote will be held on whether it should be only personal art that drops them.
• A vote will be held on whether companions can drop them.
• There will be no daily limit.
• The usual anonymous feedback form will be sent out, and adjustments made based on feedback. 

Stellar Element and the Celestial Quests

The Stellar Element and Expeditions go hand-in-hand. Only very accomplished Dragons or Riders can complete this multi-stage event to its end. 

Here are some highlights of a Stellar Element dragon:

• They may take on any appearance. ANY.
• Yes, any markings too.
• They automatically gain tier four magic in all regular elements.
• They gain access to Stellar Magic, which can do quite a few peculiar things when it comes to abilities and breeding. Stellar magic is leveled like regular magic, and more details will be available once the blessing is discovered.
• Stellar dragons lay one egg per month. This egg is guaranteed to be Night or Day and the breeder may pick which element it ends up prior to breeding.
• And more!

Here are some highlights of a Stellar Rider:

• They may bond with any Elemental Dragon, including ones that do not match their element.
• They may unlock every job.
• They may receive two extra job promotions.
• They may care for five more Familiars.
• And more!

“Pity Counter”

This is for the folks with bad luck. Individual characters will receive a tally each time they complete an Expedition while they meet the requirements to trigger the separate special Expedition. The tally also goes up extra during some secret circumstances. If a character does not trigger a quest after completing a certain amount of Expeditions, then the quest will automatically trigger the next time they roll a new Expedition. This number is very high and players are more likely to encounter the Expedition before the tally reaches its end. It is expected that very few players will accomplish this feat and unlock a Stellar character.

Lore EXP Bonus & New Lore

Dragons will now get a 1 EXP bonus if they are drawn in a lore location. There might be a special familiar hidden in Expeditions that can improve this to 3 EXP…will you be the one to find it? If a location has a Landmark then it must be portrayed (in example: a location with a gryphon statue landmark needs a gryphon statue somewhere). Details will be added as they are discovered in Expeditions. For now, the following areas/concepts have been discovered or revealed:

• Willpower
• Feral Dragons
• Casa Escondida & Leounus

Design

Three new Design Mods have been added to the team– Doom, MilkRat, and Zincwolf! Please welcome them in :3 . They have already worked wonders by keeping the design queue tidy and helping with the character exchanges. It’s because of them that all this other stuff can happen, so here’s my thank you to you three, from the bottom of my heart <3 . Along with the new mods, the usual design buffs have arrived!

New Effects and Buffs:

• Charged Type Two Aegis may cover up to 40% of the dragon and greatly protrude from its body.
• Scorched - This may now appear black on any dragon.
• Charged Scorched - Charged Scorched can have a gradient up the whole legs/neck/tail. This now matches Charged Tipped's coverage.
• Suntouched - This may now appear white on any dragon.
• Charged Suntouched - Charged Suntouched can have a gradient up the whole legs/neck/tail. This now matches Charged Tipped's coverage.
• Extensions has a new effect – alternatively, you may charge a common trait on the dragon. Free elemental traits may be chosen. This trait may be a modifier OR a display trait
• An extra Finned Crest example was located and is now displayed on the page.
• Artificial Crest does not need to be decorative anymore (although it is still highly encouraged).
• Jewels on Artificial Crest may be different colors
• Flaunt no longer needs to show all marks if Flaunt’s special layering rules would cover them.
• Shading example images have been changed entirely on the 'creating your dragon page.' The text has also changed to better explain why dragon scales do not typically shine.
• Charged shell now has examples (found them in the depths™️)
• Capricorn buff: you may optionally remove the hind limbs or turn them into aquatic limbs. This means any leg shenanigans are optional now!
• If a dragon is born with a Soulbound Familiar, then Companion can take on the shape of that Familiar instead.
• You may choose not to cover extremities with Protofeathers (such as the face, neck, legs, tail, fingers, etc.), but the main body of the dragon must be covered. This can allow for some proper ostrich-like dragons!
• Charged Glitch may use visual 'glitches' from physical media. Some examples are a marking 'running out of ink' as it goes along the dragon, misaligned halftones/screens, double printing, or similar issues.
• Translucent Skittertint Option: Skittertint can be 'watered down' and allow traits underneath to show through. When this happens, the marks can have their color adjusted, but their true color should be visible somewhere outside of the Skittertint. If the entire mark is obscured by Skittertint, then a second reference is needed. This is the only way Skittertint affects display traits.

Missing text was added to these traits:

• If a dragon has at least one naturally long trait (such as a very long mane, long digging claws, etc.), then showing Extensions in another area is optional.
• When these ears are not located on the head, they must resemble ears in some way.
• This allows you to create two lines of fins, running symmetrically down the body. They should still be positioned very close to the belly.
• Charged Nebula may have white stars.
• A small list of glitch ideas has been added to glitch. it is not all-inclusive.
• Tattered creates tears and holes in the dragon’s wings, ears, webbing, fins, or thin areas of skin. It can create cracks in horns, nails, and similar hard objects. Lastly, it can create scars on the body. These scars follow the natural/small scar rules of Loremarkers. Tattered can affect any traits that have a flat surface or webbing, any trait that can be cracked, and any trait that can be scratched.
• Charged Tattered allows for large scars.
• Skittertint is applied on top of the trait and will solidly cover the area (unless using the new effect from above). It cannot not completely hide traits.

Other Updates

• Prestige has had some legacy crafting text updated.
• Lore information on compatible and opposing elements has been added to their respective Element pages.
• Text for Calendar updated to be clarified & expand use – Events give 3 Event EXP in images that have a member of the Den in it. This replaces the normal event exp, which is normally 1 or 2 for festivals. Calendar buffs are no longer restricted to den! have your celebrations anywhere :3
• Information on Riders is now prominent on the dragon pages.

• The following Familiars have been updated (hopefully to their final forms!):
  • Vixen: Increases the chance of Encounter Expeditions.
  • Border Collie: Prevents injuries during Expeditions.
  • Black Cat: Removes the chance of a Critical Failure during expeditions.
  • Lucky Duck: doubles chance of a Critical Success during expeditions.

What to Look Forward to:

• 10 New Marks are coming your way! The winners of the Discord marking prompt will be announced at that time :3 .
• June Reverie Jamboree
• Trail Cams and Critter Cages
• Much more Lore to munch!