Frosty Hot Summer Game Update Highlights!

The Frosty Hot Summer Game Update brings frosty hot zones, hard mode raids, anniversary augment rewards, and more!

New Hot Zones are now available!: Hot Zones offer an increase in normal adventure experience for the zone and have the additional bonus of some new content. Franklin Teek in the Plane of Knowledge will be happy to point you to the current location of a Hot Zone appropriate for your level. Franklin also has a series of tasks that can be done in each of the current Hot Zones. Each task can only be completed one time each day. The following zones are now Hot Zones:

Everfrost Peaks - This mountain range in northern Antonica is home to the Northmen's town of Halas as well as a great number of orc, goblin, gnoll, and bugbear tribes. The harsh environment has toughened these native creatures to the point that travel in the Peaks a very dangerous prospect to southerners.

Permafrost Keep – Most of the Ice Giants who built this castle have long since departed Antonica for the icy shores of Velious. The departure of the giants left the door open for all manner of arctic creatures that have sough shelter within the Keep's cold stone walls, including the legendary Lady Vox, the great white dragon.

Iceclad Ocean - The Iceclad Ocean filled with dangerous icebergs and monsters of the deep. The small chain of islands that runs through the southern portion of this vast sea is known as the Icy Fingers. The Icebreaker, a gnomish ship of ingenious design, is the only mode of transport through the Iceclad Ocean.

Tower of Frozen Shadow - The Tower of Frozen Shadow is a grotesque and yet hauntingly beautiful structure built upon the second of the Icy Fingers in the Iceclad Ocean. Constructed in the recent past by some abominable being, the tower extends upwards into the silver-lined clouds that endlessly shroud the southern sky of Velious.

The Great Divide - The Great Divide is a harsh, uninviting mountain range that bisects Velious from north to south. Sheer cliff faces cause the Great Divide to be impassible from east to west. A glacier of Velium called Daggerflow River is slowing advancing southward through the region from the Great Scar.

Eastern Wastes - The eastern half of Velious is a cold inhospitable place, with little shelter for the hardy travelers that dare set foot upon Veeshan's Isle. Freezing temperatures and blizzards drive most away from this land and one will only see creatures that have adapted to the harsh conditions of the icy tundra.

Velketor's Labyrinth – The mighty Storm Giant wizard, Drovrag Velketor, resides in this castle crafted into the side of a glacier. Over the centuries, he has transformed the entrance of his lair into a labyrinth, designed to assure privacy and seclusion.

Kael Drakkal - Kael Drakkal, home of the Storm Giants, lies at the easternmost edge of the Great Scar. It has been the site of many great battles, for the dragons of Velious regard the Scars of Veeshan as the holiest of ground and find the giant's invasion of the Great Scar as sacrilege.

Western Wastes - The Western Wastes are inhospitable to all but dragonkind, holding nothing but objects of worship to the Veeshan, Mother of All Wurms. The lesser races found on Velious do not dare traverse these holy grounds. The dragons have made these lands sacred and breed exclusively in flatlands, protected by the Ice Clad Ocean to the North, South, and West.

The Ascent – The Ascent is the rocky and icy cliffs beyond the Stillmoon Temple. It ascends up to the Mountain Peak lair of the Kessdona the Enlightened, the golden dragon and Rikkukin the Defender, the platinum dragon.

Icefall Glacier – Upon the Icefall Glacier the giant city built their icy city Valdeholm. The tribal orcs, kobolds, and goblins have divided up the valley portion of the Icefall Glacier. All must be wary of the dangerous animals that prowl the valley, including snow griffins, huge glacier bears and the passive but powerful mammoths.

Valdeholm – Protected by a massive well-structured bridge that over a deep crevasse, Valdeholm, the giant city, was built beyond the north-eastern section of the wall as well as an enormous stone-carved mural on the face of the mountain.

Frostcrypt - Frostcrypt was carved into the ice out of the stone of the mountains of Icefall Glacier. The tomb was built to house the honored dead. But Rallos Zek's curse fell as the king of the giants was brought down into the crypt to be placed on the dais. Since then the Shades of Zek have lived in the tombs, converting their own ancestors to walking dead and having them build additions to the crypt out of ice.

Each week we will be sharing lore surrounding these frosty hot zones.

Hard Mode: All Seeds of Destruction raid events should now have a more challenging version available with a lower population cap. The "hard mode" versions of the raids are the same as the original raids but have a maximum character limit of 36. There are new reward items for completion of these raids.

Anniversary Augments: This year's reward augments have been added to the abaci from the 10th Anniversary raid events. Each abacus will compare the reward from last year to the reward from this year and give you the better of the two results. Rewards for the Dragons, Dragons, Dragons event are currently only being given for players who defeated all 20 dragons. A progressive reward for defeating each individual dragon will be added with our next items update.

Read the Game Updates Notes for 7/15/09 for a full list of changes and additions.

Join the Frosty Hot Summer Game Update Highlights discussion on the official EverQuest forums.