Version 6.0 has two leveling paths; Retro and Norse. Retro is similar to Classic with the original quests, with some game mechanics fixes and some additional premium subscription content. Norse is Grendel's Cave with 29 Norse Mythology quests. There are seven kingdom types; Thrall, for beginners, Karl, an easy non-PK kingdom, and then all of the PK kingdoms, Odal, Styraes, Jarl, Viking and the most difficult Einherjar. If you have a subscription to Grendel's Cave then you can start a new Thane (character) in any kingdom type you want, progression from kingdom level to the next kingdom level is no longer required, and you can sail from higher level kingdoms back into lower levels any time you want.
In Norse each new thane starts out with only one unlocked natural ability. You can earn more unlocked abilities by killing Grendel, Mother and the Dragon in any of the higher level kingdoms, but, lower level kingdom types will only increase your unlocked abilities up to a smaller level. You can only gain two unlocked abilities by winning in Odal kingdoms, but by winning in Einherjar kingdoms you can get up to the maximum of 6 unlocked natural abilities. Karl kingdoms do not give any additional unlocked abilities. Plus, if you have a subscription to Grendel's Cave you get one extra bonus unlocked ability.
You can play Grendel's Cave for free now in any of the free kingdoms. For Norse these are the Thrall and Karl kingdoms; you can play as much and for as long as you wish for free in these kingdoms. You can also play free in the Retro version of the game in the Beginning or Intermediate kingdoms.
Now, if you are playing in a Karl kingdom and that kingdom is killed by another player you can sail to another Karl kingdom without losing your level, value, rings and most of your items. This will allow you to sail to another Karl kingdom and mostly pick up from where you left off, without having to completely start over from scratch.
There are some really great perks for having a subscription, and for up to less than $5 a month, it is very inexpensive and a great deal. These are many of the perks your get for having a subscription.
One of the nice new perks you get for having a subscription is a free personal kingdom. You can configure your free kingdom to your liking using the all new personal kingdom settings setup page and can use any of the existing public kingdom types as a template for your kingdom. You can decide on Hourglasses, Death Rules, Player Killing, Quest attributes, Hel question pools, among many other and new attributes. You can even run your own tournaments by adding lives to your kingdom to provide a prize for any account that kills Grendel in your kingdom. Use the templates to see the behind the scenes settings for the public kingdoms, and practice using these settings in a safer, private arena. You can allow other accounts with subscriptions to enter your free kingdom. You set up a login name and password and when another subscribed account creates a new thane, they can enter your kingdom if they know and enter the name and password to your kingdom.
I added thane statistics to this version, and you get access to these stats if you have a subscription. I am tracking kills, deaths, PKs, KDRs, ring spending, singing of deeds, gambling, value gained or lost, resurrections and quests completed. You can see your own thanes stats, and have access to a listing page to compare to other account thanes in the game. Use these stats to see who really are the best players in the game.
I am still awarding a daily 5 life prize to any account with the thane with the highest tally at the end of each day. To get those tallies, wake up every day, kill monsters, sing of deeds, go to the witch, talk to the dragon, gamble with Wealtheow, win the kingdoms and more.
On Friday, July 9, 2021, I created a new world of kingdoms. The old world, 5.2 is retired, no new kingdoms will create, but you may continue to play in any kingdom in which you have a thane. All players that wish to play for points, lives, daily tally prizes or kingdom prizes will have to either reset your thane, start over with a new thane or sail from your current kingdom into World 6.0.
When you reset a thane, you remove the old thane and start a new thane in the current world, 6.0. If you choose to reset you will trade-in your old natural abilities and can add new abilities to your thane from the main account page. You keep your honors as shown on the thane ranking and hall of fame, but lose your slays, chiefdom, tribe affiliations, value, stats, unnatural abilities, rings and items.
You must slay Grendel, Grendel's Mother and the Dragon in a Norse Jarl, Viking or Einherjar, or a Retro Tournament kingdom for me to add your thane to the Hall of Fame. I may run special events from time to time, such as special holiday kingdoms, or rumble type kingdoms, from which you may earn a spot on the Hall of Fame, or even earn special honors that appear on the thane listing for your thane.