STAGE · The late game
Arena seasons and the Royal Tourney
Draft — Draft: checked against the game source, not yet read through end to endUnlocks at character level 6Rated Arena seasons and Crown-city Royal Tourneys have separate schedules, pair limits and entry paths.
This page is further along your path. Read ahead if you’re curious; you can return when you reach this stage.
The Arena season
The Arena offers bouts, ratings, exhibitions and private sessions. A season lasts eight weeks from its configured UTC epoch; the Arena week is a seven-day segment used by some reward rules. Do not confuse either clock with the seat week that governs the Royal Tourney.
Rated matchmaking begins within a rating band and widens while it searches. An offer expires if you do not answer within its response window. The rating system starts at 1,000 and uses an Elo calculation; the range enforced by the service is 100 to 4,000.
The same rated pair can have five counted bouts in a UTC day and ten in a season. Further bouts between that same pair remain playable but are no longer rated for the restricted count.
The Royal Tourney
The Royal Tourney is proclaimed for a seat week rather than an Arena season. The same pair has at most three counted bouts in a UTC day. Its eligibility and schedule depend on the active seat-week proclamation, so check the event notices and registration screen.
Common mistakes
Assuming a new Arena season starts at the same time as every player's local week ignores its UTC epoch.
Treating the per-pair limit as a limit on all of your Arena bouts misstates the scope.
Carrying the Arena season's eight-week timer over to the Royal Tourney ignores the seat-week event.
Next
Sources & checked facts
src/net/arena/arenaLaw.js: season/week clock, rating bounds, matchmaking and pair-counted boutssrc/net/townSeatLaw.js: Royal Tourney proclamation and pair limit (the 10-minuteSIGN_CLOSES_MScutoff is for siege rosters)src/systems/questlines/qlLines.js: The Herald's Call level gateResearch note:
handbook/research/L1.md