Pawns



Pawns, or Myrmidons, are denizens of the Rift; lacking emotion and a true will of their own, they follow the Arisen, one who has been chosen by the Dragon.

Details


All pawns carry a glowing scar upon their hand that corresponds to the scar upon the Arisen's chest. Other than the scar, Pawns look human physically, the difference being that they neither age nor truly die; they lack any sort of real emotion and willpower.

Other than the Main Pawn, the Arisen can summon up to two Support Pawns from the Rift using a Rift Stone. The Pawns that can be summoned are a mix of game-generated and, if there is an Internet connection, the user-generated Main Pawns of other players. Pawns can also be found wandering around the world -- if playing offline they consist of the game generated list, if playing online both game- and user-generated Pawns can be found wandering. These Pawns can be hired for a number of Rift Crystals.

Before hiring a Pawn, one should investigate its stats, skills, inclinations and equipment to see it’d fit into the overall party dynamic. Players cannot make changes to a Support Pawn's skills or core AI like they can with their own main pawn. It is recommended to switch Support Pawns regularly because only the Arisen and their Main Pawn will level up and gain new skills.

The equipment that came with the pawn upon hiring can be removed and changed; however, the original equipment will be returned to the player who owns the Pawn, and if the player equips a Pawn with new equipment, that item is considered a "Gift" and cannot be retrieved.

Involvement


Upon approaching the gates of Cassardis, a Pawn will spontaneously emerge from a Rift portal. This Pawn, Rook, will guide the player to The Encampment, offering advice and aiding them in battle with spells. After the Arisen proves his/her worth by slaying the Cyclops, the Pawn legion swears its fealty to the Arisen, granting them full access to the Rift.

Hiring and Releasing Pawns
This section describes the hiring and releasing of pawns.

Hiring Pawns
Pawns can be hired for a certain number of Rift Crystals. Pawns may be hired when talked to in the world or when going to a Rift Stone and summoning them from there. Inside a Rift Stone a player may search for pawn based on Pawn Level, Player ID, or Friends list. A search may also be narrowed by checking for Vocation, Gender or battle characteristics. It is not possible however to search for a pawn with a specific skill. The search list will generate somewhere between 10 and 15 results if enough pawns are found. Pawns are automatically summoned after exiting the search options. Pawns may then be hired by talking to them. Pawns may also be retained when summoning new ones by approaching them and press the button which corresponds with the "Toggle Retain Pawn" command. Pawns which you do not want can be send away immediately by using the "Send Away" command. Only a select amount of Pawns may be in the Rift Stone at any one time. Pawns not under the "Retain" command will leave automatically if the maximum has been reached.

If the Pawn is at or below the player's current level, the Pawn is free. Conversely, the higher level the pawn, the more rift crystals it will cost. Pawns of players on your friend list, no matter what their level, are free. At higher player levels pawns also are increasingly more expensive.

Releasing Pawns
A hired Pawn may be released in three ways. Manual release, Death and exchange.


 * 1) Manual release. A pawn my only be released inside a Rift Stone. Only there the option "Release" is available when talking with the pawn. When releasing a Pawn the player may send it away with a final gift. This gift must be chosen from your current inventory and cannot be picked from storage. It is also possible to give nothing. After that you must give the Pawn a rating. This rating is divided over three characteristics: Appearance Rating, Battle Rating and Helpfulness. Finally you may choose include a personal message.


 * 1) Death. The Pawn dies, either in battle or from a fall and is not timely resurrected by the player. Eaten by the Brine will also instantly kill any pawn. It is important to note that a Pawn which is not manually released, but is released by death will not gain any gifts other than gifted equipment and will only receive an average Pawn rating (3 stars overall). The release is not uploaded to the server unless the server has been accessed. Not accessing the server and reloading a save from before the time of death will circumvent this.


 * 1) Exchange. If your party is full, meaning you have two support pawns in your active party, you cannot hire a new pawn without releasing a current one. If you choose to hire a new pawn you must select a pawn for release. Doing so will automatically release the selected pawn and it will follow the normal release described in "Manual Release". The only difference is that this may also be done outside the Rift Stone as many pawns roam around outside.

Important Note: It is not possible for any player to receive a pawn which is released by a hiring player twice. This means that if a pawn is released, either by manual release or the unfortunate "death" it will send the pawn back to the player who created it. Rehiring said pawn and manually releasing it with a gift will not register. The gift and rating given secondly is lost. The only way for the player to receive the pawn twice is if the player rests and receives the pawn before the second release. Only then will the second release be properly registered. This is important since when a pawn is released by death, rehired and subsequently given equipment and a gift will not be registered and they will be lost unless the player who created the pawn has rested beforehand. It is not possible to see if this has been done from inside the game.

Gaining Rift Crystals
In order to be able to hire pawns above your current level Rift Crystals must be expended. Rift Crystals may be gained by completing quests (Felling great beasts such as a Chimera or a Cyclops will also count as a quest) or by receiving Rift Crystals from enemy drops. As such there are three types of drops namely: Rift Crystals can also be gained when your pawn is hired. This can happen in two ways:
 * 1) Rift Fragment which contains 100 Rift Crystals
 * 2) Rift Cluster which contains 400 Rift Crystals
 * 3) Rift Cluster which contains 800 Rift Crystals
 * 1) Automatic off-line hiring. This happens regardless of whether you are on or offline. The game itself will hire your pawn, grant some gifts and grant Rift Crystals. The number of Rift Crystals gained depends on your level.
 * 2) Online hiring by other players. This happens when a player uses your pawn and gains experience while the pawn is in their party. A part of the experience gained is transfered to you in the form of Rift Crystals. The longer the pawn has been in the party the higher number of Rift Crystals. Also at higher levels when more powerful monsters are slain the number of Rift Crystals gained may increase exponentially.

Leveling and Learning
As Pawns travel and complete quests with different players, they gain knowledge of areas, quests, enemy weaknesses and locations of secret paths, which they will all take back to the Arisen that created them.

If the player hires a Pawn that has already a vast knowledge of areas, creatures and quests, it will be able to aid them. For example, if a pawn has knowledge of a particular quest in which the player is involved, they will help direct them and may even go off to find hidden levers to open a hidden path.

Once sent back to the Rift, Pawns can be rated by the player that used them. They can be rated according to different parameters and facets, such as its appearance and usefulness in combat.

Main Pawn


The Main Pawn has a permanent spot in the player's party and can be customised just as extensively as the Arisen, not only regarding physical appearance, but also in vocation, skills and abilities.

The vocation of the main pawn is restricted to only 6 of the nine vocations, with Hybrid vocations only available to the Arisen.

The main pawn's AI can also be customised by their Arisen in Knowledge Chairs found in Inns as well as the Pawn Guild. These chairs can be used to "lock-in" a main inclination, choose their manner of speech and more.

If the main pawn is removed from the player's party for any reason (death, petrification, etc.), touching a Rift Stone will resummon it at no cost.

Pawn Inclinations
There are nine Pawn Inclinations:


 * Nexus: A pawn that will aid the other pawns in your party.


 * Pioneer: A pawn that will scout ahead and be on the look out for incoming danger.


 * Guardian: A pawn that will stay near and guard the Arisen.


 * Medicant: A pawn that will heal and keep the party alive.


 * Aquisitor: A pawn that will search the area for items regardless of the situation.


 * Challenger: A pawn that will attack enemies using ranged or magicka first.


 * Scather: A pawn that will attack stronger enemies first.


 * Mitigator: A pawn that will attack weaker enemies first.


 * Utilitarian: A pawn that will adapt its strategies to give allies advantages.

The Pawn Inclinations are a set of AI instructions that dictates how a Pawn will behave in a party and in combat. For example: the Medicant will always try to avoid battle while the Scather always will battle the strongest monsters. When you first create your Main Pawn you will be asked a few questions about how your pawn should behave. The answers you give will directly affect their starting inclinations.

Although support pawns' inclinations will not change as you adventure with them, your main pawn inclination levels can and will change as it learns from your actions. For example, using the command "Go!" can eventually influence your Main Pawn towards Pioneer or Challenger. Similarly, "Help!" will influence them into becoming Guardians or Medicants. Even actions such as which enemies you target first and how you fight them have an effect on your Pawn -- if you take out weaker enemies first, your pawn learns to become a Mitigator for instance.

As these inclination levels grow, whichever two are the highest and second highest becomes that pawn's Primary and Secondary inclinations, respectively. These two inclinations will direct the majority of that pawn's behavorial tendancies and will give you an idea how how they will perform. The order of these two main inclinations are also important in that they will determine how, exactly, your pawn will carry out its actions and can be both helpful and harmful. For example, if a pawn's Primary inclination is Challenger and its Secondary inclination is Guardian, it will first target any ranged or magickal enemies within range before coming to the Arisen's side. If those two are reversed, however, the pawn will prioritize the Arisen's safety above all else and will not target those ranged and magickal enemies unless the Arisen is in direct proximty to them, which can be counter-intuitive if the Arisen is a ranged attacker because the pawn will be hard to persuade to leave your side.

Even though you cannot see the inclinations' values, all of them affect the pawn in some way and continously rise and fall as it learns from you. This can cause your pawn's primary and secondary inclinations to change from time to time. You can prevent your pawn's primary inclination from changing by using a Knowledge Chair. Doing so will "lock-in" your pawn's primary inclination when it asks you which role it should take in battle. You cannot, however, lock-in the secondary inclination.

Note that it is possible, if somewhat uncommon, for inclinations to become exact values. When this happens, it will appear as though your pawn's inclinations have vanished. This will eventually correct itself over time as the pawn learns, but you can correct this immediately by using the elixirs Johnathan sells.

Johnathan can be found at The Encampent near the Rift Stone. His elixirs can be purchased with Rift Crystals and can greatly affect your pawn's inclination levels, as well as completely reset them if desired. Elixers cost 250 Rift Crystals, but they can be duplicated at the Black Cat for a mere 375 Gold.

Trivia

 * Despite being devoid of emotion and willpower, they fight with utmost earnesty and courage. This is likely for gameplay purposes, but it could also mean that by "willpower" they are speaking about their own personality, or lack thereof.


 * Although most pawns lack emotion, an Arisen's main pawn can become more human as they spend more time with the Arisen, eventually developing the rudaments of free will and losing their Pawn-Mark on their hand.