Wow. I have been very impressed with the response to our Prison release a few weeks ago. Following up on that great release, today I am proud to announce the pending release of our Skyblock server: Skyblock Utopia.

FAQ

When is the server releasing?

The server will release on August 15th at 3PM Eastern Time. To find out when that is in your timezone, please Google “3PM ET” (or just click here and we’ll google it for you…)

What is the server IP?

**play.oplegends.com - **We support 1.8-1.16, but the best experience will be offered on 1.12.2+ (you will be unable to use the Quick Access menu by pressing [F] unless you are on 1.12 or higher).

I bought a rank on CaribbeanMC (the predecessor to this network). Will I receive it here?

Yes: rank names are different but you will receive the corresponding rank if you purchased a rank on CaribbeanMC through the webstore. It should be automatically applied, but if it is not, you can create a ticket in our discord (play.oplegends.com), provide proof-of-purchase, and we will make sure that you are matched up to the correct rank here.

Introduction

I have been working on this project since May, and I am very happy to announce it today. It has gone through extensive development as well as a new focus over the last few weeks.  Our goals with this gamemode are the following:

  • To provide a clean, polished Skyblock experience
  • To offer balanced, fun gameplay for all players
  • To combine our new ideas with a careful assessment of the Skyblock gamemode’s most popular features over the last 4 years.

I am very happy with the experience we have decided upon, and I can’t wait to share it all with you. With that being said, I would like to share some highlights of our Skyblock’s best features. In addition to this short excerpt, which I am keeping short to ensure our thunder is not stolen as well as to preserve our gameplay’s uniqueness, there are dozens of features which will only be documented on release. Without further ado:

Skyblock Islands

For this Skyblock release, we have settled upon some interesting starter islands. These islands are designed to provide a fun starting point for your Skyblock experience: they have trees, farmable items, ores, and more all built-in! Additionally, all of these islands have a starter area underground with a workbench, furnace, enchantment table, and more to help you start out better.

A snapshot of one of the starting templates.

The Mob Mines

Part of our expansive content includes a heavy focus on Player-versus-mob (PvE) combat. As a part of this, we are including not one, but threemob mine areas. This large network of caves, accessible through the cave in spawn, provide tens of hours of combat gameplay by themselves. Featuring regenerating ores (which yield Mining XP), dangerous monsters (which yield Combat XP), and overpowered rare boss mob areas which spawn periodically, this network of mines is incredibly thrilling. Make sure to bring your best weapons and armor: the later stages are tough even for the most experienced players. The cave, straight ahead of spawn, is where you will be able to access the first of the mob mines.A snapshot of the first mining area: one of the easier fighters.The boss arena in the first mining area: this difficult Frozen King boss only spawns every few hours, so if you are lucky enough to get there first and it spawns for you, the top attackers get some remarkable rewards. Each successive mob mine is larger than the last: while the first zone is relatively small (as an introduction), the second one is large (with two main cave systems spanning over 100 blocks in elevation), and the third one is even more expansive, featuring four large zones, each more challenging than the last. A clearing in the second mob mine. This second mob mine is for intermediate players with a bigger Combat Skill Level.This open area is less than 25% of the third mob mine zone. This expansive network of mines is sure to provide a big grind for you and your friends to embark upon! In addition to this crazy network of mines, we are offering a revamped Skills system, which is a refresh and upgrade of the beta version of Skills first debuted on CaribbeanMC last March.

Skills

We took the valuable feedback we received from players on CaribbeanMC and have reworked our Skills system appropriately. For those who played on Caribbean, here are the important changes:

  • You no longer have one slot specific to a skill item: you can create and enchant however many types of fishing rods/pickaxes/farming hoes/etc as you wish.
  • Skill abilities have been moved over to custom enchants which can be applied to items and traded around.
  • The old farming system has been scrapped entirely.
  • We have given fishing a facelift. You will be able to see it when you log on, but let’s just say it is a solid improvement and is even cooler than the old unique fishing system.

For those who did not play on Caribbean, here is an introduction to skills:

Skills provide an experience and leveling mechanic for different actions common to Skyblock. I like to think of it like McMMO, but not a decade old. Designed specifically for our Skyblock, you can earn experience and levels in Fishing, Farming, Mining, and Combat.

Leveling up these skills provide for great rewards: You can get a higher chance of double drops from the actions of these skills, earn money, mobcoins, rare custom enchantments, and Elixir (more on that later). An example of a slightly leveled Fishing skill. As you can see, I have level 6 currently, and I still need 10 more fishing XP to get to the next level.My mining skill. As you can see, I’m already level 19 out of 25! For level 20, I will get an even higher double drop chance as well as Elixir. The following four skills are currently available (a fifth may be coming as an update later on, stay tuned for that crazy content update partway through the map!):

Fishing: You gain this through fishing with our custom fishing mechanic.

Mining: This is earned by mining ores. The most XP comes from mining in the Mob Mine, as you will receive next to no Mining XP for mining with a generator on your island.

Farming: This is earned by breaking grown wheat, carrots, potatos, and cocoa beans.

Combat: This is earned by killing mobs in the Mob Mine (does not apply to grinder mobs).

This skills system provides a lot of unique mechanics. I hope you will be able to discover a lot of the nuance in this throughout the map.

Custom Enchants

Our custom enchants system is a unique recreation of the concept of Custom Enchants. A preliminary version of this system was previewed on Prison with Gear Enchants, and after getting feedback and data from the system, we are presenting a revamped edition for this Skyblock gamemode.

By spending EXP, you can purchase enchant books. When opened by right clicking, they reveal a randomized custom enchant. Special books can be obtained from rare events (like a low chance in killing a mob mine mob, through a fishing enchant, or by killing a Mob Mine boss). Most of these enchants apply to PvE, however a few may be slightly useful for PvP. Here are some of the most interesting enchants:

  • Lucky Cast (Fishing Rod enchant): Has a chance to always reel in the Epic fish (the best possible).
  • Inquisitive Cast (Fishing Rod enchant): Allows you to earn regular EXP from fishing.
  • Scavenging Cast (Fishing Rod enchant): Has a chance to reel in rare enchant books, crate keys, and more.
  • Inquisitive (Sword enchant): Earn more experience from grinding mobs
  • Serrated Blade (Sword enchant): Have a chance to kill 2 mobs off of a stack instead of one
  • And many more…

The goal of this enchants system is to provide unique abilities you can apply to your items. You can apply 5 enchants to a given item (including Vanilla enchants, which are also integrated into this same scroll system).

Elixir and Player Upgrades

You may have seen the Elixir rewards in Skills. But what exactly is that?

One of our unique features we are introducing is a complete Player Upgrades system. Too often, we have heard complaints about a lack of late-game goals in Skyblock. To remedy this, we are introducing Player Attributes, which are different properties your Skyblock Character has, such as health, attack damage, defense, movement speed, crit chance, and strength.

To be very clear, attributes like Health, defense, strength, and crit chance only affect PvE (player versus mob) combat. PvP behaves normally (as it should).

In order to purchase these upgrades towards your character, you must have Elixir. This is a very rare, nontransferrable essence you earn from tough Skill levels, rare drops from boss mobs, and more. It is a rare thing to obtain, but when used, is very helpful to your Skyblock adventure. My skyblock character. As you can see, I have some upgrades in Health and Speed. These help me move faster around the world, as well as have more health against monsters.The Character Upgrades system. There are 5 upgrades you can apply, and the upgrades you purchase are permanent, so choose carefully! These are the upgrades available:

Health: Scales your health against monsters.

Defense: Protects yourself against deadly blows by stronger monsters.

Strength: Allows you to do more damage against monsters.

Crit: Have a higher chance to deal deadly blows against monsters.

Movement Speed: Move faster around the world. This one is really nice!

Hopefully this system is a big hit: I have found it to be really useful and fun to make the different explorable parts of the world easier to tolerate!

Skulls, Mob Armor, and Spawners

We are also adding Mob Armor to skyblock. Channel the spirits of the mobs whose armor you equip!

By killing spawner mobs, there is a chance to drop skulls. These skulls are very important! If you collect enough of them, you can barter them in /mobarmor in exhcnage for pieces of armor infused with that Mob’s powers! Some of the pieces of mob armor. Their identities and powers remain a secret for now, but you will be able to see them all on release! Additionally, there is an even rarer chance for some of the Mob Mine mobs and bosses to drop their skulls. These *super rare skulls *can be bartered for the most powerful Mob Armor. Some custom enchants might be useful to get a higher chance to obtain these rare monster skulls….

However, skulls aren’t just useful for Mob Armor…. they are also needed to purchase spawners?!

That’s right, we are introducing a new system to help balance and improve spawners on OPLegends Skyblock. In order to purchase some spawners, you will need:

  • A certain Combat Level. This means you will need to grind out the Mob Mine to a certain extent to be eligible to purchase (and place) some spawners!
  • Mob skulls. Some mob skulls are required and used in spawner purchases to obtain spawners.

We believe these balancing changes will make our gameplay that much more engaging.

Pets

We’re also introducing pets! We heard how much people loved the pets on Prison, so we are bringing a skyblock-centric version of pets over to Skyblock.

Pets are companions which you can activate for special powers. They stay tucked away in your inventory, but when you want to summon them for help, you just right click them and they will spawn next to you! When active, they provide boosts, powers, and more. I have activated a Sheep pet, which gives me a super secret special power! Each pet’s identities and powers are secret for now, so make sure to check them out when they are implemented a few weeks into the map as an update!

🥇 Island Top and Payouts 🥇

How about some incentive to spice up gameplay? Island Top is calculated based on island worth, which depends on the spawners placed on your island.

**Island Top #1: **$50 PayPal + $30 Buycraft

Island Top #2:$20 PayPal + $20 Buycraft

**Island Top #3: **$15 PayPal + $15 Buycraft

**Island Top #4: **$10 PayPal + $10 Buycraft

**Island Top #5: **$5 PayPal + $5 Buycraft

Payouts last for 5 weeks.

And with that, I’m concluding this feature showcase. There will be much more for you to discover on release, so make sure to check out the server on August 15th at 3PM ET!