The newest Lineage patch will be hitting the test servers later this week, and NCsoft is inviting players to try out the new content and features before they go live. You can read the patch notes after the jump.

The updated ant cave dungeon will have 10 floors and contain enemies ranging in level from 12 to the upper 50s. Players will be able to participate in pet races and death match mini-games. Experience penalties for deaths have been changed, and a new alliance system has been implemented.

Ant Cave Dungeon

The Giant Ant Cave has been invaded by a new species of ant, the white ant! The Giant Ant Queen quickly used her mind control abilities to take over these new ants and is now creating a new ant army composed of hybrids of her new and old ants.

There will be a total of 6 entrances in the desert to the ant cave.

The interior layout of the ant cave has been changed.

There are ten floors to the updated ant cave. The tenth floor is where the Giant Ant Queen resides and it is on this floor that the rewards are the most plentiful.

There will be ants of many levels from 12 all the way up to the upper 50's.

Giant ant guardians will appear every hour, guarding certain doors in the caves.

Several heavier items can drop from ants in the caves which have a high adena value when sold at a store.

Ant eggs can be found throughout the caves. Opening an egg can be dangerous but could also result in a reward. You can only open an egg with a catalyzer which can be found on ants.

Pet Racing

Dupo is the pet racing manager stationed in Gludin Village. Talk to Dupo to be placed on the waiting list for the pet races.

When 5 players have signed up for a pet race, they will enter the stadium and additional participants may join in the next 60 seconds.

At least 2 players must be present at the starting line for the match to begin.

A maximum of 10 users can participate in a single pet race.

A total of three rooms per server are available for pet races.

Each race is limited to 5 minutes and consists of four rounds.

There are speed boosts and traps that will transform a player into various animals spread out all throughout the arena.

The types of rewards handed out will depend on the number of participants as well as what place they earn.

2-4 participants = 1st place receives a reward.

5-7 participants = 1st and 2nd places receive a reward.

8-10 participants = 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places receive a reward.

Death Match

Mini games of Lineage tournament are now available in game. These matches are competitions for individual players.

Datu and Kusan can be found in Gludin Village and are the managers of the Lineage Death Match game.

Players from level 52 up to 99 can enter the Death Match by talking to Datu.

Players from level 30 up to 51 can enter the Death Match by talking to Kusan.

The number of participants for a Death Match is between 5 and 20.

Matches will not begin until at least 5 players have gathered.

Summoned monsters and pets cannot enter but magic dolls can.

Players will not be able to see the names of the other characters in the match.

Chatting will be disabled during the game.

If a user dies in the match, there is no experience penalty and no items will be dropped.

Combat will continue until only 1 survivor is left in the arena and this finalist will be rewarded.

If the death match does not end within 30 minutes, it will be declared a draw.

Lineage Coliseum Changes

Difficulty has been increased on all matches with bosses spawning after every wave.

Times and levels have changed as indicated below:

Silver Knight Town Coliseum: Level 1-30 (8 times a day, from 02:00, every 3 hours)

Talking Island Coliseum: Level 25-44 (8 times a day, from 01:00, every 3 hours)

Gludin Village Coliseum: Level 31-51 (8 times a day, from 02:00, every 3 hours)

Weldern Village Coliseum: Level 45-60 (8 times a day, from 02:00, every 3 hours)

Giran Village Coliseum: Level 52-99 (6 times a day, 01:00 03:00 09:00 15:00 21:00 23:00)

New Magic Dolls

Three new magic dolls are now available in game.

Stone Golem Magic Doll - When one receives damage from a monster, this damage is decreased by 15, 4% of the time.

Elder Magic Doll - Restores 15 MP every ~60 seconds.

Crustacean Magic Doll - Inflicts an additional 15 damage approximately 3% of the time.

Castle Mercenaries

Castle mercenaries have been updated.

Kent Castle - Sword, Spear, and Archer Soldiers : 10,000 adena; Wizards: 15,000 adena

Orc Castle - Warriors, Axe Warriors, and Archers: 10,000 adena; Wizards: 15,000 adena

Windawood Castle - Warriors, Archers, and Fighters: 10,000 adena; Wizards: 15,000 adena

Giran Castle - Sword Soldiers, Archers, and Spearmen: 10,000 adena; Lancemen: 15,000 adena

Heine Castle - Swordsmen, Fencers, and Rangers: 10,000 adena; Magicians: 15,000 adena

Underground Castle - Archers, Fencers, and Rangers: 10,000 adena

Aden Castle - Swordsmen, Archers, and Lancemen: 10,000 adena; Knights: 15,000 adena

New Alliance System

While two blood pledge leaders are facing each other, type /alliancejoin in the chat window to form an alliance. You may also click on the community icon to do this as well.

In order to leave an alliance, type /allianceleave.

Alliance chatting can be done using the ~ character.

Typing /alliancelist will bring up a list of the alliance in the chat window. This is also available under the community icon alliance options as well.

All members of pledges will have the same status in this type of alliance.

By becoming allies, pledges cannot declare war against each other while the pledges are under the same alliance.

During sieges, with the exception of one's own alliance members, all other pledges will be considered enemies.

Warehouses, halls, castles and wars remain individually owned. Sieges will be shared between allied pledges.

Experience Penalty Changes

Experience penalties for deaths have been changed. A system of "buy back" has been restored to the game. After death, you may buy back a portion of your lost experience for adena. After extensive testing, it was determined that the buy-back system is much more beneficial to players than the original system.

Upon death, players will experience a higher experience loss than they are currently accustomed to.

A buy-back system is now in place where players can buy back 70% or more of the experience that was lost. Players level 51 and over will be able to buy back more experience.

Players level 79 and above will be able to buy back 99% of the experience that was lost.

Siege Changes

Siege areas have had their penalty for death reduced. When you die during a siege, you will no longer lose any experience or items.

New Mail System

Type /letter to bring up the new letter system UI.

Each user now has a Mail Box that can store letters for them.

Up to 20 regular letters can be stored.

Up to 50 clan letters can be stored.

Up to 10 saved letters can be stored.

Once your mail box is full, you can no longer receive letters.

Sending a regular letter costs 50 adena. Clan letters cost 1000 adena to send.

Crystal Cavern Updated

Crystal Cavern 1F - Monsters from level ~37 to 45 reside on this floor. This floor is designed for players around level 47.

Crystal Cavern 2F - Monsters from level ~43 to 55 reside on this floor. This floor is designed for players around level 50.

Crystal Cavern 3F - Monsters from level ~46 to 60 reside on this floor. This floor is designed for players around level 53.

The first floor is designed as a place for solo players to enjoy. Frozen monsters are scattered throughout the floor that will be awoken when the ice that encases them has been broken.

The second and third floor of crystal cavern are full of keyed doors. You must kill all monsters in a single room for the key to the next one to be dropped. Beware of the Ice Demon on floor 2 and the Ice Queen on 3!

New item: Ice Queen's Earring - Monsters will drop the Ice Queen's Earring. Boss monsters drop ice crystals which should be taken with the earring to a jeweler in Oren for a bonus.

The Crystal Caverns portals on mainland Aden have been removed.

Brad and Marvin have been moved to Oren. Speak to Brad to teleport to Crystal Cavern.

Karif NPC has been moved to Weldern village.

The level 45 royal quest is no longer offered in Crystal Cavern.

Level 45 Royal Quest Updated

After meeting with Mack, you will need to go visit the sorcerer Pieta on the 3rd floor of the Ivory Tower instead of going to Brad. Follow Pieta's instructions which will lead you to the 8th floor of the Ivory Tower.

If you were unable to obtain a spirit letter, you will be able to obtain a soul from the Soul Devourer in the Ivory Tower and continue the quest by speaking to Mack.

New Furniture Items

Merchant Zeint in Gludin - Party cake, flower vase, water fountain, flower columns, partitions

Taxidermist Phyllis in Gludin - Stuffed demon, stuffed drake, stuffed cougar, stuffed iris, stuffed great minotaur

Bosses that can be stuffed will drop a soul. Collect 10 souls and 100,000 adena and Phyllis will create a stuffed specimen of the boss for you.

Magic Changes

Overall MP consumption rate for single target magic has been lowered.

For some single target magic spells, the range has been shortened but attack power has been increased.

Summoned monsters have been redone.

Summoned monsters are divided into three types: tank, damage dealer, ranged damage.

Summoned monsters over level 56 are classified as special and require added CHA in order to summon more than one.

The CHA required to summon a Cougar or Doppleganger has been raised.

The attack type of a Cougar summons has been altered. The number of critical attacks has been reduced and range magic has been added.

Weldern Weapon Enchanting

A stone golem can be found in Weldern refining magic weapons in exchange for various ingredients including Crystals of Bravery. Crystals of Bravery can be obtained from the Haunted House and other mini games at a low probability. Travel to Weldern to see what ingredients are required to create several new powerful weapons.

Magic Dagger - Absorbs the opponent's mana. Made of mithril, it can inflict additional damage to undead monsters.

Axe of Violent Gale - This type of axe generates a gale force wind that affects nearby monsters.

Large Sword of Destruction - This is a two handed sword that steals your opponent's life force when a successful attack is made.

Archmage's Cane - This cane casts a curse of disease on your opponent.

Spear of Fierce Cold - This spear activates a frozen cloud.

Sword of Thunder - A one handed sword that procs Call Lightning.

New Poly Merchant

A new merchant has been introduced in Oren.

Sharna will sell polymorph scrolls for 2500 each that will allow you to remain in your normal sprite while you hunt.

These scrolls allow you to maintain an unmorphed appearance but have all the speeds of the highest level morph available to your character.

Miscellaneous Changes

When a character that is level 52 or higher enters the Temple of Shadows or Desire Cavern through the dimensional door, all ground quest items belonging to the abandoned mob will be deleted.

Many lower level monsters (below level 30) across the mainland have been changed.

When the hunger gauge of a pet goes to it's minimum level, the pet will automatically go into standby mode.

You will no longer be able to summon monsters or pets on the 4th floor of Lastavard.

During pet matches, if a high pet is in battle against a regular pet, the regular pet will be adjusted 10 levels higher.

The number of pet match arenas has been increased from 6 to 10.

Storage will now indicate the correct number of spaces as 150 instead of 100.

Teleport coordinates inside of Heine Castle have been changed to the center of the castle.

Fishing poles will only be given to players who do not have them upon entering the fishing area. You will now be able to exit without carrying a fishing pole as well.

In the Mercenary Captain's quest, the quest to exchange cloaks has been changed.

Non Dark Elves will no longer be able to make DE only weapons by speaking to Koop.

The price limit of individual items sold at private stores has been increased from 100,000,000 adena to 300,000,000 adena.

Corrected an issue where some pet items could not be placed on a pet.

Items used by pets can only be put on the pet by the owner who summoned the pet.

The overall attack power of two handed weapons has been increased. This change does not affect all two handed weapons.

The magic effect on the Pumpkin Sword has been changed to single target.

The minimum level to participate in pet racing and the Haunted House has been changed to 20.

Several changes have been made to the way that level 50 class quests work. The first phase of the quest no longer requires a specific group. Speak to Dicarding on the 3rd floor of the Ivory Tower to learn about your new quest steps.

Level 2 cooking recipes have been added.