Taern

Taern - blood. Death. Retribution.

Studio

Whitemoon

Publisher

Subject

Fantasy , middle ages

Game mode

PL, DE, FR, RU, EN, BGR

Age rating

USK

Taern - blood. Death. Retribution. is a work based on FlashAS2 MMORPG - browser game that plays in time in the Middle Ages. Developed by Whitemoon, the first version went live in Poland in December 2010 and became the most popular browser game there. Since then, Taern has appeared in other languages, including German since July 2014.

In contrast to other games, Taern returns to the classic isometric game view and appears completely as a two-dimensional game. The story of Taern begins with the hero's flight from his devastated homeland to one of the neighboring countries. From there he gathers allies to recapture his homeland from the Utorians.

For money it is possible to buy special items, but these do not create any extreme advantage in the game.

Game flow

After you have created an account and logged in, a short introductory video follows, which outlines the history of the game. The land of Taern was invaded by the hostile Utorians and cannot defend itself against the attackers due to a lack of military strength. Therefore, the Taerniern only has to flee to Haligard, which marks the start of the game story.

After the video you start with a tutorial. This explains how to move around in the game, the operation of the interface, interaction with objects, quest progress and the turn-based combat system.

Step by step you fight your way through the first quest, get to know the family of your own character and try to save them from the attacking Utorians. Even now you have the possibility to control the course of the quest by choosing between protecting an NPC or warning the nearby village.

The outcome of the tutorial remains the same: during the escape you try to leave Taern by ship, but are overwhelmed by attackers and only come to again on the ship. Here, too, there is another quest that can be solved in different ways. The tutorial ends as soon as you have completed this quest and reached Haligard harbor.

From this point on you can move about freely in the game, but it is advisable to continue following the main quests. These now deal in many sections with the fight against Utor and the rescue of Taern.

Core elements of the game

Character and classes

Taern provides 7 character classes (selectable as male or female) to play with. These can be developed and played completely individually, as there is no typical link between certain items of equipment and individual character classes. Each character class has nine unique talents with seven different talent levels. The higher a talent level, the more effective the talent is. The currently maximum attainable level for each character in Taern is level 140. From level 126 it is possible to learn all individual talents of a character up to the maximum level. There is a good balance between the character classes, no class stands out due to its massive superiority over all others and within a playgroup the different classes complement each other very well.

Druids

The druids are the healers in the game. They are very important when it comes to defeating strong opponents (whether individual or a group). The druids have many talents with which they can strengthen and heal individual group members or the entire group. In addition to their supportive skills, they also have some attacks. Used correctly, they can trap opponents and block their attacks. But druids are not only strong fighters in a group. Once they have reached a certain level, they can also become very powerful as lone fighters.

Barbarians

The barbarians deal a lot of damage and have strong defenses. They too have talents with which they can strengthen their group. They are designed more for close combat and in most cases wield two-handed weapons. They don't necessarily attach great importance to tactics, they strike hard, so their opponents are usually on the ground after two or three hits. The protection of other group members is possible for them, but is not always the highest priority. Barbarians are defensive fighters from the very beginning of their lives.

Knight

The knights are not dissimilar to the druids and strongly support their group. They have many talents to protect their group members, to intensify their attacks, but also those to weaken their opponents. As a bulwark, they can attract attacks and block some of the damage. If necessary, however, they can strike themselves with their few but strong attacks. The knights are tacticians who prepare their opponents in order to be able to defeat them in battle. A knight can only develop his talents fully in a group. The knights are also oriented towards close combat.

Renshi

The Renshis, like the barbarians, are good at dealing damage, but have a weaker defense. They are nimble fighters who harass their opponent with a mixture of close and long-range combat. Even with them, the support of the group is not the top priority, but they have a talent to support other fighters. Not only do they harm their opponents through sheer strength and massive damage, but they also reduce their attack and defense skills.

Voodoo priest

The voodoo priests have only two attacks that are really strong. They use their remaining talents to block their opponents in their attacks, lower their defenses and slowly but surely move them from the realm of the living to that of the dead. Voodoo priests have no talent to support a group, but enough to weaken their opponents individually or in groups. They are the only class that can go to the enemy in acute mana needs and withdraw the required mana from them.

Archer

The archers are equipped with some strong attacks, which in many cases also unfold additional, negative influences on their opponents and weaken them in one way or another. In addition, there is an area attack that hits and damages several opponents at the same time. The disadvantage of this battery of attacks is that the archers have few buffs and hardly any talent to support the group. The melee attacks, which the archers often use to confuse the enemy, are often particularly surprising.

Fire mage

The fire mages have some powerful attacks that they can combine wonderfully with their ability to make enemies vulnerable to fire. They are also good companions for a group, because they are characterized above all by their area attacks, with which they can damage several opponents at the same time. They don't have the talents to really support their group members unless their group is made up of all fire mages. The fire mages can also attack with a mixture of ranged and close combat. They are also the only character group that can respond to melee attacks by enemies by burning them.

Quest and orders

In addition to the very extensive list of quests, consisting of a main series of quests and many independent side quests, there are tasks that can be fulfilled again and again after a waiting period has expired. These mostly bring gold, experience points, reputation, honor or raw materials as a reward. The main quests start with the tutorial and are initiated by the story of the game. They run through the entire lower level area and can take different courses, depending on how you as a player decide at certain points in the quests. Almost all quests in Taern are non-linear, so the course can be determined by the player. Wrong decisions can result in a follow-up quest being permanently blocked and the reward for completing the respective quest is lower. You can also unlock further quests with the right decisions and even improve the character's reputation in the (NPC) society.

Guilds

Taern offers a very extensive guild system, which not only represents a fixed grouping of players, but also offers different bonuses within the game for all members of a guild through guild buildings. Establishing a guild is only possible from level 30 and after completing a series of quests. In its basic form, a guild can accept up to 10 players as members. Within the guild there are different ranks with rights to lead the guild. By collecting reputation, honor, gold and raw materials, a guild lot can be acquired for the construction of guild buildings. The different guild buildings offer different types of bonuses, such as faster resource extraction, keeping comrades-in-arms, teleporting to certain locations and much more.

Combat system and fight

The fights in Taern, regardless of whether player against player or player against monster, are fought as a group, whereby the minimum group size is one player. Every fight is turn-based between two groups. Both groups have 10 seconds per round to define their strategy consisting of attacks and defense. This can be done either individually or using a predefined strategy. A fight lasts until all participants in a group have been defeated. Normally 12 action points are available for setting the combat strategy; these can be set up to 5 attacks or the three types of defense (physical, ranged, mental). The more action points that are placed on attacks and defense, the greater the chance of hitting or escaping with an attack. The number of action points can be temporarily increased or decreased by using certain buffs or debuffs. [embed video fight - hello youtube!] If you die in combat, you lose at least experience points and gold, and in rare cases items from your inventory. It doesn't matter whether you lose to NPCs or other players. You can also win experience, gold and items in the fight against monsters or players. The fight against monsters is possible everywhere, fights player against player can only be carried out in certain areas of the game world marked for this purpose. Depending on the combat area, it is possible or not to escape from a fight.

Game world

The game world is made up of individual cards of different sizes. Each card has at least one transition to another card, most of which are freely accessible. On many cards, raw materials for the production of certain items can be extracted from certain locations. In addition to the normal maps, there are also different forms of instances that can be entered either as a single player or as a group. The entry conditions and the level of difficulty of the opponents in it depend on the instance. A boss monster can be found in each instance, which must be defeated in order to leave the instance alive. At the moment there are six large areas or countries in the world of Taern, in each of these countries there is a slightly different game atmosphere, due to its own climate, very own monsters and inhabitants.

Equipment system

In addition to the very large game world, Taern also offers an abundance (well over 200) of different opponents, partly human, partly mythical creatures. The inventory of items in the game is even more extensive. A wide range of raw materials for making other items is only surpassed by the equipment system. Each piece of equipment has a name, consisting of two parts. These indicate the basic bonuses on the piece of equipment. The amount of the bonus depends on the level of the item. The character must meet certain requirements in order to use the equipment. This requirement consists in most cases of the level of the character and a minimum value of one of the status values strength, wisdom, mental power or skill. Few items are really class-specific. The equipment in Taern can be dropped or purchased from retailers. The dealers automatically change their offer at certain time intervals. The pieces of equipment in the offer are randomly recreated, so that new and therefore very individual combinations of bonuses on pieces of equipment can occur. If you buy equipment parts from a dealer, they are bound to the character and can no longer be traded or used by other characters. The only way to get unbound items is to drop them in combat or trade them from other players. Many pieces of equipment that you drop in combat are damaged. If you repair them at a dealer, this also leads to a permanent bond between the item and the character.

companion

Since Taern is an established group game, but other players are not always available, there are companions. These are different beings that can support a player in battle. They differ in type, level, skills and price. Many of the companions can be bought from NPCs for one or two of the game currencies if the conditions for purchase are met. There are basically two types of companions: experience-gathering companions and "one-time" companions. The first group gathers experience when a fight is won, as does the character, and can thus rise in level and develop their own status values. These companions are also able to put on special companion equipment. If they die, they lose part of the experience they have gained, but they will never lose a complete level. If you put a piece of equipment on such a companion, it will also be linked to the character and the corresponding companion. The second group of companions does not collect experience points and has a fixed level. If such a companion dies, he does not lose any experience or his level. This type of companion cannot wear equipment. Another group of companions only becomes available through the expansion of guilds; the same rules apply to these. In contrast to the maximum character level, companions can only reach level 90 and then gain no further experience. A character can have multiple companions, but only ever have one with them. If you want to change the companion, you have to go to the place or NPC that sells this companion. Finally, it is also possible to build special companions. For this, some components of the companion must first be produced. In addition, a recipe is required to make the companion.

Game currencies

There are four game currencies in Taern, with gold, Kaisertaler and Silberlinge being the most common. The fourth currency, Vorling ducats, is only available once you have reached Beirn and can only be used there. In this country they can be obtained by completing orders and dropping monsters and used for trading. Gold is the most common currency in Taern and can be collected through quests, killing monsters, trading and completing contracts. In addition, there are areas in the game in which valuable items can be produced and then sold to certain NPCs, depending on the time of day, more or less profitably. These special areas are combat areas, so it is possible to fight for the use of the areas. Silver pieces represent the cash currency in Taern, so to buy for money. With silver coins you can buy small advantages to play with, but these advantages are not decisive for the game. Silver pieces can also be obtained without purchasing them. For reaching certain levels, the player is credited with a small sum of silver coins that are freely available to him. Kaisertaler can either be exchanged for gold or bought for silver coins. With Kaisertalers it is possible to use the teleport function within the game and to cover long distances in this way. The "one-time" companions are also available for Kaisertaler, so they can be purchased completely without using real money.