Hey everyone! In today’s post, we’ll be delving into everything the Minecadia Holiday Update has to offer for Factions: Pirate. Before we get into it, lets cover some important information:

RELEASE INFORMATION

• Release Date: Friday, December 2nd, at 5 PM EST
• Server IP: play.minecadia.com
• MC Version: 1.8.9
• Store: https://store.minecadia.com/
• Discord: http://discord.gg/minecadia
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/playminecadia
  

OUR GOALS

Before we break down each change this update has to offer, we wanted to give some insight on our decision making for the content implementations/removals/tweaks we made this season. Over the past seasons of Minecadia, we have noticed a few issues with the common playstyle that we’re working to correct. Previously, PvP Factions and Base Factions seem to be completely separated with different day to day content and goals with completely different focuses. PvP Factions would solely focus on god set PvP and not really care about making bases/raiding/getting raided, nor care about F Top (since it was value based). Base Factions, on the other hand, would mainly focus on the raiding side and winning F Top, which also would mix in PvP. One of our main goals with this update, and future updates to come, is to merge these two play styles together: we want base players to NEED pvpers, and vice versa, which should give a sense of general competitiveness to each piece of content we have to offer - more of how we are working to achieve this will be explained in the feature breakdown. Other than this, we have worked to give Minecadia a brand new feel with a more organized and fast-paced day to day experience; we don’t want players logging on and not having anything to do, or not knowing what to do - we’re working on making it so there is ALWAYS something to do. And finally, we have improved and reworked the fan favorite features of Minecadia. Without further ado, here’s the detailed feature list:

General Holiday Update

• All punishments have been reset. Players with active mutes, bans, or blacklists (except chargeback) have been pardoned.
• All player’s “Get out of Jail” prices in the Minecadia Jail have been reset to default pricing.
• Experience brand new builds everywhere on Factions: Pirate, with the majority being Holiday themed to get everyone in the festive spirit!
  

Map Information

• 15 Man Factions, with 5 Extra Roster Spots (a total of 20)
• No Allies, No Truces
• 5 Week Long Map to celebrate the Holidays!
• 2 Weeks of Grace Period (December 2nd - December 16th)
• 3 Weeks of Raiding (December 16th - January 4th)
• 10k x 10k Overworld
• 2k x 2k Tundra Warp
• 2k x 2k Desert Warp
• 2k x 2k Plains Warp
• 2k x 2k Nether Warp (revamped!)
  

Expeditions 2.0

Expeditions has served as a pillar of gameplay since its release; however, with the continuous evolution of Minecadia, it’s time to give Expeditions a complete overhaul, and that is our goal with Expeditions 2.0.

Expeditions 2.0:

• The Minecadia Pirates have plundered all of the known land of Minecadia. Hungry for more loot, they have begun exploring beyond their typical bounds into the arctic region. As they began to make progress, a raging blizzard surrounded their ship and caused them to crash into an iceberg and sink! Conveniently, the crew survived by sheltering in an enclosed room, but upon waking up, they realized they had discovered and fallen into a series of cities protected and hidden by forcefield domes! Enjoy brand new mobs, bosses, builds, loot tables, and a specialized plotline for Expeditions 2.0 for all to experience.
  

Introducing Expeditions Wardrobe:

• Players can no longer bring any items they want into Expeditions. Instead, players have access to a wardrobe that stores Expeditions Armor and Weapons, separated into multiple loadouts. This system has easy customizability, allowing for changing out sets, pieces and swapping between loadouts.
• With that being said, if a player dies on Island 1-5, they will have a chance of losing an enchant on every piece of armor completely. All inventory loot or other miscellaneous items will be lost and disappear completely - no players can loot these items. However, on Island 6, players will lose everything upon death, including their current expeditions loadout, and it will be lootable by other players. View your Expeditions Wardrobe by typing /expedition wardrobe.
  

Introducing Boss Scales:

• Complete Ronnie’s tasks in order to obtain rare resources and boss scales. Trade these resources to Ronnie in order to achieve items specifically to help your gameplay in expeditions. Depending on the level of the task, you will receive a different amount of boss scales. The harder the task, the better the reward, including brand new exclusive, rare rewards from certain tasks.
  

Introducing Mastery Points:

• Get rewarded with Mastery Points as you progress through the expeditions levels. Players can access and upgrade a brand new Skill Tree using Mastery Points to get access to exclusive benefits, buffs, and perks. Complete quests in order to unlock the different expertise trees. Once you max out an expertise, players will gain access to a special ability; different expertises have different perks. Choose wisely on how you will upgrade your tree!
  

Introducing Milestones:

• On Island 6, players have access to certain mob kill milestones that will give guaranteed, very good rewards.
  

Introducing Expedition Pets:

• Gather and utilize all new pets specialized solely for Expeditions.
  

Various Tweaks/Information:

• There are a total of 6 tiers of Islands/Domes; the final island is still a PvP enabled island.
• Each tier will have multiple duplicate islands/domes, which can be transferred between to give more space to players.
• Expedition Level Skips now have a cooldown of 10 minutes.
• Expedition Level Skips can no longer bypass the level cap.
• If a player logs out on Island 6, they will log back in the same location.
  

Voyages 2.0

Just like Expeditions, Voyages has also served as a critical pillar of gameplay since its release; obviously though, we did vault voyages in the recent season in anticipation for this update. Voyages 2.0 features brand new rooms, trinkets, lobbies, and a whole bunch of changes to existing rooms to give them new challenges and a fresh feel.

Introducing “Chaotic Trinkets”:

• Increase the difficulty of your voyage with certain debuffs by applying a Chaotic Trinket. Having this trinket applied gives you a higher chance to pull better loot.
  

Introducing 5 New Rooms:

• Treasure Map Maze
• The Island
• Teleport Parkour Maze
• Yeti
• Parkour Maze
  

Introducing a variety of changes to existing rooms:

• Color Craze
• Bigger Board
• X Marks the Spot
• New Build
• Vertical Maze
• New Build
• Random Lever Locations
• Barbaric Serpent
• Buffed Health and Damage
• Abandoned Pearl
• Buffed Health and Damage
• Shooting Range
• New Build
• Dropper
• New Builds
• Rainbow Parkour
• New Parkour
• Shiver-Me-Timbers
• New Build
• New Parkour
• Bombs-Away
• Changed Island
• TNT Now Blows Up Island
• BlackBeard's Obstacle
• New Parkour
• Code Parkour
• New Variations
• Longer Codes
• Knockback Clutch
• New Build
• New Paths
• Guantanamo Heist
• New Tasks
• Color Thimble
• Bigger Board
• Cannonball Run
• Updated Current Build
• Riddler Room
• New Riddles
• Connect Four
• Updated AI
• Box over
• New Variations
• Bigger Build
• Push The Silver Fish
• New Variations
• Recreate The Build
• Fixed Glitched Builds
• Hydration is Key
• New Variations
• Hot Foots
• Increased Block Disappearing Speed
• Stranded
• New chest Locations
• Can't Break Blocks Under the Boss
• Twister
• Unvaulted
• Natural Disasters
• Updated Build
• Added New Ender Dragon Disaster
• Pacman Maze
• Added Power Ups
  

Introducing “Increased Risk”:

• After completing 3 rooms in BlackBeards Tier, you will only be offered loot every 3 rooms completed. The more rooms completed, the higher the chance for better loot.
  

Various Tweaks & Changes:

• Introduced more regular trinkets to help complete rooms faster!
• Introduced new lobbies with lobby music!
• Reduced XP gained per room completed and increased XP lost per room failed.
  

Voyages: Wars & Battles

In addition to Voyages 2.0, there has been an idea we have always wanted to do.

Introducing Voyage Wars and Battles:

• If you like Voyages, you will love Voyage Wars & Battles. Put you and your crew to the ultimate test to see who will reign supreme. Voyage teams will compete head to head in a series of battles/wars, so choose who you want on your team wisely. A point allocation system will be put into place where the team with the highest cumulative points following the completion of all the rooms/competitions will be distinguished as the winner.
• Voyage Wars & Battles is intended to be released about halfway into the map.
  

F Top Leaderboards

As stated earlier, we are attempting to merge the playstyles and day to day content of Base Factions and PvP Factions. One of our first steps in this direction is by completely revamping the F Top Leaderboard; F Top will no longer be based on “Base Value”, it will now be based on Faction Points. Faction Points are obtainable from pretty much every single piece of content on Minecadia: both PvP, PvE, and Base content. However, Faction Value will still exist, and will have its own leaderboard on “/f top”. The top three Faction Value factions are subject to passive hourly gain of Faction Points, in addition to buffs and benefits for the entire faction while holding a top three value position.

Here is our current breakdown of Faction Point gain and loss (all points are automatically applied, there is no vouchers or items to gain points):

Point Gain:

• KOTH Capture (+50 Points)
• Warp KOTH Capture (+75 Points)
• Hardpoint Win (+50 Points)
• DTC Win (+50 Points)
• Citadel Capture (+1000 Points)
• Conquest Capture (+1000 Points)
• Player Kill (+1 Point - This has a faction cooldown of 3 minutes & anti-boost)
• Boss Kill (+3 Points - #1 Damager)
• Dungeon Completion (+20 Points - Points Provided 1 Time to each Faction, not player, that succeeds)
• Voyage Room Completion (+1 Point - Points provided 1 time to each Faction, not player, that completes a room)
• Expeditions Boss Kill (+3 Points - #1 Damager)Winning a /Event (+8 Points - actual winner only)
• F Value 1 (+30 Points - Every Hour)
• F Value 2 (+20 Points - Every Hour)
• F Value 3 (+10 Points - Every Hour)
• Holding an Outpost (+3 Points - 15 Minutes)
• Holding a Stronghold (+3 points - 15 Minutes)
• Raiding another Faction’s Core (+33% of their Points - explained next)
  

Point Loss:

• Player Death (-1 Point - This has a faction cooldown of 3 minutes)
• Faction Core Raided (-33% of Faction Points - explained next)
  

These values are most certainly subject to change. It’s a little hard to anticipate how the scaling of points will go as the map proceeds, so we’ll need to evaluate how it goes and make changes that way.

To further incentive to compete on the value leaderboard, we have implemented PvP buffs for the factions holding the top 3 value positions:

Holding F Value Position #1:

• -5% Incoming Damage
• 15% Reduced Pet Cooldown
• 30% Less Soul Usage

Holding F Value Position #2:

• 15% Reduced Pet Cooldown
• 30% Less Soul Usage

Holding F Value Position #3:

• 30% Less Soul Usage
  

Faction Cores

With the implementation of Faction Points, we still needed to have a link between Faction Points and raiding:

• Using /f setcore, a beacon can be placed down by the leader of the faction marking the location of your faction’s core, only inside of a base claim.
• Every faction must place down their Faction Core in their most protected area in order to BE ABLE to earn Faction Points.
• The chunk location of the beacon will be highlighted on /f map in an orange color for everyone to see, and the exact coordinates of the core will be displayed upon hovering over this chunk.
• Once this core is placed, then your faction can begin to earn faction points. If the core is not placed, you CANNOT gain faction points.
• If the core is picked up (which only the leader can do), then your faction points will be reset to 0. The core CANNOT be picked up whilst being raided.
  

As stated earlier, the purpose of the core is to provide a link between Faction Points and raiding. So, if a Faction Core is accessed by an enemy team that is currently raiding them, then they can right click the core to open a UI to officially “RAID” the enemy, which will steal 33% of their Faction Points and put them on a raid cooldown of 24 hours. This means their Core cannot be raided and stolen from again for 24 hours.

The numerical values and systematic functionality, such as stealing 33% of Faction Points and the 24 hour cooldown, are subject to change based on feedback during gameplay. We’re open to different methods of linking raiding and points, (IE: having multiple cores that make up 100% of your points), but we’re going to need to see how the leaderboards play out this season.

New F Top Rewards (End of Map)

We’ve heard many requests of buffed rewards for the winners of each map. We have some new rewards, which are listed below, but also keep in mind that we are considering weekly rewards for the F Top leaderboard based on how it goes on during this season. If we see consistent and close competition, it would make sense for us to implement weekly rewards in the future; to be clear, this season will not have weekly rewards, but we are considering it for the future.

New F Top Rewards:

F Top 1:

• 5x Silverfish Spawners
• 2x [10L] Orc Sets
• Corner of choice
• $500 Buycraft
• 2x Grinding Sword/Weapon (of their choice)
• 2x XP Boost for 1 Week for Faction
• 3x F-Top Crates (revamped)

F Top 2:

• 3x Silverfish Spawners
• 1x [10L] Orc Set
• $250 Buycraft
• 1x Grinding Sword/Weapon (of their choice)
• 1.5x XP Boost for 1 Week for Faction
• 2x F-Top Crates (revamped)

F Top 3:

• 2x Silverfish Spawners
• 1x [10L] Pirate Set
• $150 Buycraft
• 1x Grinding Sword/Weapon (of their choice)
• 1.25x XP Boost for 1 Week for Faction
• 1x F-Top Crates (revamped)
  

Competitive PvP Revamp (Event Schedule)

The Competitive PvP Event Schedule has been introduced to Factions: Pirate. This event schedule will start an event every 2 hours. With the implementation of new events (explained next) and the consistency of these events in addition to linking them directly to winning the map, we’re hoping to incentivize further PvP competition. KOTH Loot Bags have also been buffed significantly to reflect these desires!

KOTH

• Introduced a new /KOTH UI
• Introduced a variety of new capture zones, so it won’t just be one in warzone!
  

Hardpoint

• Introduced a brand new event based off of the Call of Duty classic: Hardpoint
• Hardpoint features constantly rotating capture zones.
• Control the capture zone with your faction uncontested to gain points every few seconds.
• First faction to a certain amount of points wins!
  

DTC

• Introduced a brand new event based off of the HCF classic: Destroy the Core
• When active, factions can compete to deplete the core’s health, which is an obsidian block, by mining it.
• The last faction to mine the block wins the event!
  

/Warp KOTH

• /Warp KOTH has been revamped to give a better experience.
• Warp to this out-of-world KOTH to enjoy a competitive experience where you have one life, and keep inventory is on.
• Enjoy a brand new map, new mechanics in the event (such as no fly), and further safeguards on the one life rule.
  

End Revamp

• The current PvE End experience has been vaulted; instead, End has been revamped to be a zone for more competitive PvP.
• The core foundation of End where players cannot fly, warp out, access pvs, tp, etc will remain to give this zone a more “HCF-like” PvP feel.
• The End will feature various locations for event schedule events, such as KOTHs, Hardpoint Rotations, DTC’s.
• The End also features the implementation of brand new competitive PvP weekend events: Citadel & Conquest
  

Citadel, Conquest, and Faction Tournaments

• The HCF competitive events of Citadel & Conquest have been implemented and will be located in the End.
• These events will be hosted each weekend, with Citadel on Saturday and Conquest on Sunday.
• In the future, we will look to revamp these events to make them more intuitive - but for now, enjoy the classics!
• We will also be implementing and hosting occasional Faction Tournaments. These tournaments will work the same as they do now, but instead, each faction can only have one team, up to a certain amount of maximum team members. Tournament teams are automatically created and joined as your faction warps to the tournament. There will be no way to be in a team with someone who is NOT in your faction, and these tournaments are intended to host larger fights, closer to the maximum faction size.
  

Party Risk Duels

• We have introduced Party Risk Duels!
• Using /party, you can create a team to duel other parties of the same size with the Risk Inventory Kit.
• Make sure to play with people you trust: only the leader can collect the loot of the enemies, and the loot of the teammates who died.
  

New Leaderboards

We have implemented a variety of new individual leaderboards for players to compete on:

• Top Kills
• Top Killstreak
• Top KDR
• Calculate this based on the kills tracked after anti-boost
• Top Deaths
• Top Events Won
• Top Playtime
• Top Boss Kills
• Top Mob Kills
• Top EXP Gained
• Top Pet Uses
• Top Dungeons Completed
• Top Voyages Completed
• Top Envoy Chests Opened
• Top Star Items Applied
• Top Map Points
  

Christmas Chronicle

• Our brand new and exclusive Christmas Chronicle has been released, it obtains brand new challenges, rewards, and more! The first player to complete the entire Chronicle will receive a Founder White Scroll.
  

Advent Calendar

• Our limited edition purchasable Advent Calendar will be released this weekend: claim a reward every day until Christmas!
  

Tweaks

Enchants

• Judgement Enchant no longer stacks.
• Enlighted Enchant no longer stacks.
• Equalizer Enchantment has been unvaulted.
• Shock Enchantment has been unvaulted.
• Enrage Enchantment has been unvaulted.
• Insomnia Enchantment has been vaulted.
• Rune Diver Enchantment has been buffed.
• Cursed Mark Enchantment has been nerfed.
• Enforcer Enchantment has been buffed.
  

Armor Sets

• Inferno Armor Set has been unvaulted.
• Fortune Armor Crate now gives a full set.
• Founder Shard now gets Inferno, Diablo, and Fortune Ability.
  

Pets

• Frost Pet has been unvaulted.
• Valentines Pet has been unvaulted (and added back to Cupid GKit).
  

Partner Items

• Anti Patch Beacon has been unvaulted and revamped to Anti Trap Beacon.
• It cannot be placed in base claims or raid claims.
  

Masks

• Midas Mask has been unvaulted.
• Santa Mask has been unvaulted.
• Agent Mask has been unvaulted.
• Corruptor Mask has been vaulted.
  

Faction Upgrades

• Removed Faction Member Upgrade
  

/Fund Rework

• Removed Shillings Cave from /Fund.
• Orbs have been removed from /Fund and replaced with Holy White Scrolls & Pet Collars:
• Full Breakdown
• Dead Man's Chest - $50m | unlocks in 2 hours
• Armor Set Abilities - $100m | Unlocks in 12 hours
• Roll Tickets - $250m | Unlocks in 1 day
• Outposts - $500m | Unlocks in 2 days
• Strongholds - $2bil | Unlocks in 3 days
• Itemflip - $3bil | Unlocks in 4 days
• Isla de Muerta - $4bil | Unlocks in 5 days
• Holy White Scrolls & Pet Collars - $5bil | Unlocks in 6 days
• Shipwreck Cove - $7bil | Unlock in 7 days
• Voyages - $8bil | Unlock in 8 days
  

Star Items

• Nitro now has a new ability of reduced soul usage.
• The Tactical Nuke ability for Nitro has been buffed.
• Heroic Diamond Hook has been nerfed.
  

Miscellaneous Changes

• Bosses can now be placed at any Y level in any Warzone Claim, except in Warp Nether & Warp Arcade.
• Removed spawning at faction’s f home upon death.
• Removed -25% of Incoming Damage from Heroic Weapons from Blackened Bay Stronghold
• Replaced with -5% of Incoming Damage from Enemy Players
• Remove the Private Heroic Envoy for Controller
• Cactus Sell Price has been nerfed to $0.33.
• Iron Sell Price has been nerfed to $70.00.
• Players can no longer bring Partner Items into duels.
• Battlefield Cerberus Boss Loot has been buffed:
• 3 - 10 Roll Tickets (100%)
• Mystery Seasonal Pet LVL 100 (50%)
• 5000 - 12000 Souls (100%)
• 1 - 2x Rover Armor Crates - 25%
• 1 - 2x Leviathan Armor Crates - 25%
• 1x Mystery Admin Item - 30%
• 1x Mystery Star Item - 15%
• Chroma - 2.5%
• Flaming Hollow - 5%
• 1x Inferno Armor Piece - 2.5%
• Midas Mask - 5%
• Shipwreck Cove Portal - 35%
• Voyage Portal - 30%
• Diamond Hook - 1%
• Pet Skins have been revamped to Christmas themed!
• Various loot tables have been changed.
  

Final Information

That’s all we have for the Factions: Pirate Holiday Update. Let's give a big thanks to the Minecadia staff, admins, developers, and owners for this update! We hope to see you guys online this upcoming Friday, December 2nd, at 5 PM EST for our 5 week long map filled with tons of new content. As always, thank you for your continued support. Happy Holidays!