Wizard101 Test Realm Launches With New Spells, Pet Games, Talents, and More!

The Test Realm is open, and it's got a ton of new things to check out! I've got all of the statistics, pricing, and photos for you here, but before you start, grab some background information on what's new over at the Update Notes! Then, let's get started!

What is probably the highlight of the update is the new level for pets: Mega! For 2000 experience in addition to what you already have (totaling nearly 4000 experience in a single pet), you can get your pet a FIFTH talent and derby ability. Right now, people are spending crowns and digging into their Mega Snack supplies on the Test Realm to see which talents their pet will be getting. At the current point in time, I'm not too interested in Mega pets, mainly because I don't have the resources to get one, and I'd want to check it out in the Test Realm first anyway. Don't get me wrong, though, this isn't too ridiculous a challenge at all! I'll explain why in a later post.

To motivate you to train your new pets are some brand-new talents, though their origins have yet to be discovered. These involve Critical, Critical Block, Healing Bonuses, Armor Piercing, and Stun Resistance.

To help you train your pets to the new Mega level, there are two new minigames in the Pavilion. The first is Grumpy Gobblers, obviously a spin-off of Angry Birds.

The game features cardboard Gobbler cutouts and blocks stacking into various formations.

The levels are as follows: Keep, Fortress, Stronghold, Castle, Palace.

After a rotation around the formation (which can be repeated at any time by clicking the camera button), you'll be ready to fire your cannon. You can choose the power as well as the left/right and up/down angle of your cannon. Before you fire, you can choose either Fire, Ice or Storm. While you can get a Fire, Ice, or Storm Shot, they all work the same, and the choice is purely cosmetic as far as I can tell.

Knocking over blocks scores points. You have ten shots and must use as few as possible to move every item out of its original position. This can get tricky later when some blocks start on the ground in a very stable position.

 From what I can tell, failing to knock down everything results in 0 experience, while getting everything usually results in 4.

The second new game is Way of the Ninja Pig.

This game features a MooShu-style course with swinging hammers, turning wheels, catapults, narrow paths, moving blocks, and more!

There are five different courses, all themed the same but slightly different. You are given a certain amount of time to complete your chosen course, and your time determines your experience reward. Don't worry, you can get going when you run out of time, as shown by my negative time remaining here. There are also the occasional catapults. They move left and right, and you hit space bar when you're ready to activate them. A good landing will save you a lot of time, but a miss means you're in the water and you've lost a second.

Be careful of these big, turning wheels, that'd just love to sweep you off the edge! You can see some swinging hammers in the distance.

Here's one of those narrow paths. It can be pretty easy to fall off!

And when you do fall off, you make a big splash and return to the last checkpoint in the course!

To make things even easier for you, Pet Derby will now train your pet! While you don't get any experience for participating, you can feed your pet two snacks after finishing!

As well as a ton of new snacks being added throughout the Spiral, Broc Connery in the Pet Pavilion will also sell you snacks for Arena Tickets! Here's a price list.

Snack - Cost in Arena Tickets

Chocolate Strawberry - 8

Cheese Broccoli - 8

Cracker - 8

Sugar Donut - 8

Gummy Firecat - 8

King Banana - 10

Gummy Humongofrog - 10

Goat Cheese - 10

Flaming Soup - 10

Uni-Corn - 14

Shiny Tomato - 14

Buttered Bread - 14

Glowing Dragon Fruit - 14

Salmonberry - 14

Snacks are ranks 3, 5, and 6, but may give more experience than their rank.

If that weren't enough, there's new gear to help your out for Arena tickets as well from Nigel in the Pet Pavilion! Here are the athames....

...the amulets (yes, energy amulets)...

...and the rings!

Items giving 2 energy cost 200 Arena Tickets. Items giving 3 energy cost 250 Arena Tickets. Items giving 4 energy cost 300 Arena Tickets.

On to PvP! There are new PvP Arena Ticket rewards from Diego! Here are the amulets. From left to right costs: 450, 500, 500.

There are also some new athames with Stun Resistance for levels 65+ and 75+, currently costing 100 Arena Tickets each.

Here are the rings with Stun Resistance, costing 100 Arena tickets each.

As far as PvP goes, there are some other major updates as well! Diego has a new quest for you, but it's bugged, and cannot be completed. The matchmaking system has also been updated to take level into account more than rank to prevent puppet teams. You should also get into both PvP and Derby matches quicker.

Oh, and one more thing. There are four beautiful new arenas! The arena that is probably my favorite is the Avalon arena. You start out in some rooms overtaken by crystals.

You then cross a large bridge. This is your initial view of the arena.

The center of the bridge is coming apart.

This is your view back to the rooms.

And upon entering, you find the arena!

Next up is the Celestia-themed arena. Similar to the first location, the arena is lit with alien heads and stars. 

Before exiting, you come through this room.

Very similar to the Sun Palace, the Zafaria arena starts outside a large gate.

Inside, you can walk into the arena.

There are three levels of watching areas on either side, connected by a bridge on the top level.

If you've done Wysteria, then this arena should look familiar. You start in a room with a fountain and three doors.

The two tunnels on either side take you up to the top of the arena.

The center tunnel takes you to a blocked gate.

Moving on from PvP, there's a new quest feature on your map. Anyone you need to talk to will glow in yellow now.

Well, that's pets and PvP, what about the other side activity - gardening? It didn't suffer and lack of updates either. More crown seeds have been added as drops around the Spiral, and several specifics have been added to various items, e.g. you will now see the gardening experience you need to get to the next level, and gardening spells now show their level requirement.

Between those activities, there are some new potions!

Purreau's Potion #9 costs 400 crowns and will reset your hatching timer so that you can hatch again immediately. 

The Hatching Elixir costs 150 crowns and will hatch all of the eggs in your backpack immediately.

The Crafting Elixir costs 250 crowns and will reset all of your crafting timers.

There are also several other cool updates! First, Loop and Shuffle options have been added to music players, and there are new Pet Derby music scrolls to get! If that doesn't quite meet your housing update requirement, then there's all new free furniture to pick up all over Wysteria, Grizzleheim, Avalon, Zafaria, and Celestia! From shields to Gorilla Huts, there's quite a variety! Check it all out here: http://www.wizard101central.com/forums/showthread.php?t=307020

Remember to check out various miscellaneous updates at the Test Realm Notes.

Wait a minute, don't forget about what they didn't put in the update notes! The fact that we haven't seen any of the new talents, and now this, suggests that another pack is on the way!

Check out these new, craftable spells!

Does that Luminous Weaver cast a -25% damage "bubble" or is that some other effect?

Did you know that they're also adding level 70 and 80 gear into packs? They even put some in the Crown Shop for testing!

That's all I've got for you now! What do you think of the new updates?

Thanks for reading, and see you in the Spiral!