The next OrbusVR: Reborn Beta Test begins February 22nd. If you missed it, be sure to check out our recent update on the release schedule for Reborn as we head into the final couple of months before launch!

Scoundrel

It's not luck, it's skill.

The Scoundrel is the fourth and final new Discipline that we are introducing in Reborn. The Scoundrel is a class built around pressing your luck and showing off your skill. The main weapon is a gun capable of firing curved bullets. By "slinging" the gun while you fire, the Scoundrel is able to to arc their trajectory before hitting the target. Hitting a target with a curved bullet grants the "Showing Off" buff which increases attacks done to that target by the Scoundrel for a short time -- the more curved the bullet, and the greater the distance from the target when struck, the higher the buff will be.

The Scoundrel's gun is a six-shooter, which can be fired at a very high rate. However, bullets only reload into the gun slowly. So it's up to you to balance burst damage by firing quickly, against the possibility that you'll run out of ammo and be stuck waiting for a reload when you really need it. The gun can also be charged by holding down the trigger button for up to 3 shots, which interrupts enemies and allows a single shot to deal massive damage.

In addition to the gun, the Scoundrel is never without their trusty deck of cards. Imbued with magical power, the deck contains six cards, each of which when used grant a temporary buff to the Scoundrel or debuff to their enemy.

• Card of Vines: Your next shot deals damage over time to the target
• Card of Ice: Your next shot slows the target
• Card of Flame: Your next shot deals greatly increased damage
• Card of Light: Your next shot heals yourself for the damage done to the target.
• Card of Flint: Your next shot weakens the target's defense
• Card of Ash: Your next shot has a greatly increased critical strike chance

Cards can be drawn from the deck every few seconds. When you draw a card, you have the option to Use the card (empowering your next shot as above), Store the card (saving it for later), or Burn the card (sacrificing it to empower your next card.) There are three available empowerments:

• Potency: Increases the potency or duration of your next card (depending on the type)
• Spread: Spreads the debuff of your next card to nearby enemies from the primary target
• Cheat: Places the card back into your current deck after you use it

Once all six cards have been drawn from your deck, the deck will be re-shuffled so you can continue to draw from it repeatedly.

The Scoundrel is a high-skill, high-damage class. Being able to consistently hit a target while slinging a curved bullet from a moderate distance (so that you can keep the "Showing Off" buff active all the time) is necessary. At the same time, during combat you must be constantly drawing from your deck and making quick decisions about whether to Use, Store, or Burn each card depending on the current battle situation and what you need to accomplish. The best Scoundrels can deal some of the highest burst damage in the world of OrbusVR, but missing just a few shots or falling behind on your deck management can quickly lead to a very sharp drop in your DPS output.

Auction House

When we originally designed OrbusVR, rather than putting in a traditional MMO Auction House, we created player-run Market Stalls which could be leased by players who wanted to take an active role in the economy. Our goal with this was to give players additional agency in the game world, and to create a more personal feeling in the market trading that went on in our world.

In OrbusVR: Reborn, we are continuing this tradition, and Market Stalls will still play a key role. In fact, in addition to the types of stalls that we currently have for lease, we will actually have a few select shops that players can rent out, to truly give them a part of the city of Highsteppe to call their own. However, we also want to make sure that players who play more casually can easily access the economy in the game and participate in it, and that new players who join after the game's launch don't have to wait a month or two to be able to easily sell items to other players.

The Auction House feature of Reborn will allow players to list a limited number of items for sale in a traditional auction selling environment -- setting a minimum bid and a buyout bid for each item. Players can then search through the auction house by item type, and choose to place a bid or buyout the auction immediately; purchases and proceeds from these sales will be delivered to a new special Delivery Chest in the Player House.

Items that are posted for sale at Market Stalls will also appear in the Auction House as buyout-only auctions; this also provides additional functionality for Market Stalls by making them the de-facto way to increase the number of items that you can list on the Auction House, and makes it even easier than before for players to peruse items for sale in stalls without needing to visit each one individually. Players who do want to roleplay as a merchant or buyer and do an in-person visit to each stall to view the wares that are for sale can still do so as well.

The first version of the Auction House will be available for testing in the upcoming Beta test of Reborn.

Honor Ranks

Another new addition to the game will be the inclusion of an Honor Ranks system. Anytime that you defeat another player in Open World or Battlegrounds PvP, you will receive points based on their current rank on the server. During the weekly reset each week, the system will automatically tally all of the points earned by everyone server-wide, and give a rank to each player who earned points.

There are 12 ranks in total, ranging from Recruit to Contender to Champion. Each rank is increasingly exclusive; while there will be many Recruits, there will be very few Contender players, and only one single Champion player in the entire server.

There will be a leaderboard on the website with the rankings and point counts of the top players each week, and a special title will be unlocked which will display your current rank for everyone to see in-game if you want to show the world your PvP prowess.

But don't get too comfortable! Your rank will fall quickly if you don't defend it, so be sure to get out there and claim your honor points.

We'll be back soon with more previews of what's coming in the next Reborn Beta, stay tuned!