Fae Yule 2012 is here, and snowballs are in season! As part of Rift Junkies’ series of holiday event guides, here is our take on Fae Yule, complete with lots of screenshots, details on the rewards offered, and hints, tips, and descriptions for the event’s quests and activities.

Fae Yule is essentially the same lighthearted, goodie-filled holiday it was last year, except this year there is more to do, and more ways to spend Unique Snowflakes, which will be great for players who found themselves a little overrun with the currency last time around. There are some new items, including items for Storm Legion-leveled players, festive dimension items, and pets and mounts that are both new and returning. The event itself is still largely centered in Meridian and Sanctum, though Iron Pine Peak plays an important role this time as well.

This coming weekend, December 14th through 18th, Trion will be showcasing RIFT Patch 2.1 and Storm Legion for free. Former subscribers will be able to explore all of the content of Storm Legion without purchasing the expansion, and prospective players will be able to experience some of the new additions to RIFT, including dimensions and the newly-arrived Fae Yule holiday event.

Storm Legion has already been called a “truly inspiring,” “gold standard” expansion with “by far the most innovative housing system in the genre.” Try it free from Dec. 14-18 when you join the Ascended in a march on the forces of Air and Death! Former subscribers can dive deep into Storm Legion with no restrictions, while anyone, including RIFT Lite players, can celebrate a huge new Fae Yule World Event and build in private or public, personal or guild Dimensions.

For more information, see Trion’s official announcement.

Along with today’s news about RIFT Patch 2.1 launching December 12th, Trion also announced a few holiday surprises for RIFT players. A new holiday-themed cape will be available for Ascend-a-Friend participants both old and new, and there will be two Fae Yule dimension items available for subscribing to the RIFT Watch newsletter and for clicking an image on RIFT’s Facebook page.

More on the Winter Cape:

Happy Holidays! Receive a Winter Cape in honor of Fae Yule – simply purchase any Storm Legion™ package* before the end of the year and invite a friend to join you in RIFT through the Ascend-a-Friend Program. If your friend purchases Storm Legion before December 31, you both receive the festive holiday present.

Previously Ascended your friend? You’re not left out: just make sure you both own Storm Legion before the end of the year and you both receive the cape.

For more information, see Trion’s Fae Yule gift page.

Trion’s well on their way to continuing their goal of frequent content dates even after the recent launch of Storm Legion. RIFT Patch 2.1, also known as Endless Eclipse, will be released on live servers on December 12th:

Messengers race from Morban with grave news: Regulos readies an apocalyptic return to Telara. Agents of the Endless Court have collected his shattered essence, selected a host, and prepared a portal to the Plane of Death. The Devourer of Worlds is coming, and unlike Crucia, who offered salvation for submission, he wants only to annihilate the Ascended, their world, and all that lies beyond.

Endless Eclipse will feature Storm Legion’s second 20-man raid, Endless Eclipse, which Rift Junkies got a chance to preview during the expansion’s beta. The patch will also bring a little cheer to our faction capitols with this year’s updated Fae Yule holiday event. Level 60 players will also be able to experience iconic Storm Legion lore (hi, Crucia!) in the new Chronicle, A Hero Rises.

For more information, please see Trion’s official release announcement and RIFT 2.1′s information page.

Over the weekend, RIFT’s Public Test Server (PTS) received a fairly large update, and within that update was a preview of the holiday cheer headed our way in RIFT 2.1. I’m talking of no other world event than Fae Yule, of course, which debuted last year as Trion’s first annual holiday event. We already knew the team had some extra goodies in store for us this year, but we didn’t know what exactly. Now we do– and here’s a preview!

Note: All information from the PTS is subject to change at any time, especially item prices, etc.

Fae Yule is essentially the same lighthearted, goodie-filled holiday it was last year, except this year there is more to do, and more ways to spend Unique Snowflakes, which will be great for players who found themselves a little overrun with the currency last time around. There are some new items, including items for Storm Legion-leveled players, festive dimension items, and pets and mounts that are both new and returning. The event itself is still largely centered in Meridian and Sanctum, though Iron Pine Peak plays an important role this time as well.

Just in case you’re the type who likes to plan ahead for holiday events, Elrar announced some new items and activities planned for this year’s Fae Yule, RIFT’s annual winter holiday event. Here’s what he said:

Originally posted by Elrar (Source)

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One of our devs just passed me all the details – here’s what you have to look forward to in addition to the festivities from last year:

• Fae-Yule Themed Whitefall Steppes Alt-Mode
• Some new quests
• Adding Dimension items, a cape, and new stat items to the merchant
• Fae-Yule themed Instant Adventures in both Storm Legion and Chocolate RIFT content.

And yes – the event will use the same currency as last year, as will all our Seasonal World Events.

After this post, Mortt also followed up with a post saying that the new Fae Yule additions will show up on the PTS a couple of weeks after Storm Legion’s launch. It may be too early to start breaking out the Christmas carols at your local mall, but it’s never too early to start thinking about RIFT goodies!

Mini-Pets can be broken down into four catargories, Vender, Achivement, Droped and Special Event. Eventually I plan on covering all of them but today I’m going to highlight our adorable Yule Festival friend Rudy!

Who do you need on a foggy Christmas Eve? Who’s luminescent nose will guide your team through inclement winter weather? Rudy the Red Nosed DoggieDeer! Rudy will sit, stand, scratch, pant and follow you everywhere! His bright red nose will warm your heart and light your way through the darkest of dungeons. The only thing he won’t do is chew your new slippers or dig up the tulips!

Rudy is purchasable from the World Event Vender for 1000 Unique Snowflakes and worth every one! Get your’s before the Fae Yule Celebration is over!

Fae Yule comes to Telara for six weeks of Fae gone wild, corgi companions, and plenty of mead

Freshly freed from Greenscale’s clutches, the Fae of Telara are ready to party this holiday season … and it’s going to get crazy. Starting today, Rift™ kicks off a six week, three phase world event known as “Fae Yule,” an epic in-game celebration that features fancy holiday hats, new quests, a grumpy mead-guzzling satyr, and other festive items.

But it’s not all candy canes and cocoa. Crucia, the Dragon of Air, seeks to ruin the festivities by enslaving the Fae anew, and it’s up to Ascended to crush her plans and save Fae Yule. Throughout the event, players can earn Unique Snowflakes, which can be redeemed for yule-inspired gear, a jolly corgi companion, and a lavish vaiyuu mount.

This weekend, Trion kicks off the celebration with three days of subscriber bonuses, including increased experience, PvP Favor and Prestige, Plaques of Achievement, and Planarite.

Just in case you aren’t able to catch enough pre-Thanksgiving holiday cheer from your local department store, RIFT’s here to help. The next world event to hit Telara is hot on the PTS this week– the Fae Yule world event. The event comes complete with an old boggling in a hat named Grandfather Frost, tentacle Christmas trees, blinking lights, a goofy outfit to acquire, and you guessed it– another currency to collect and more rifts to close.

The first thing I’ll say about Fae Yule is that it’s obviously a holiday event, meant to happen every year around Christmastime. This is the first holiday event RIFT has done, and it’s nice to see one in the makings. In-game holidays are a fun way to add some festive cheer to an MMO’s community, and give players something to look forward to as the years progress. Holiday quests can be pretty amusing the first year they’re around, if done well, and it’s always interesting to see what developers come up with as far as explaining the lore behind the holidays.