Cabal Online

Cabal Online is a free-to-play, 3D massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by South Korean company ESTsoft. Different localizations of the game exist for various countries and regions. Although free-to-play, the game makes use of the freemium business model by implementing an "Item Shop", both in-game and via web, allowing players to purchase special premium coins using real currency, in order to acquire exclusive game enhancements and features, useful items and assorted vanity content.
Cabal Online takes place in a fictional world known as Nevareth, nearly a thousand years after its devastation by a powerful group of idealistic men, the CABAL. Hoping to turn their world into a utopia, they inadvertently fueled the forces and laws of nature to rebel against them, causing the event known as the Apocalypse. After the destruction, only eight members of the CABAL survived, including their leader, Faust.
Prophesying the future, Faust saw the rise of an evil force that would, once again, ruin the land of Nevareth. In the present day, that evil has come. It is now up to the player to face the waves of minions that have invaded the world and uncover the truth behind them.
Cabal is currently licensed and operated by Combo InterActive under ESTgames’ rights, and has been redeveloped into two main platforms: and , in order to comprehensively serve both PC players and smartphone users in the modern era.

History

CABAL Online was first released in South Korea in October 2005. The game was later released from closed beta testing in Europe in July 2006, and by December the game and all subsequent versions became free-to-play. In North America, OGPlanet had picked up the license for the game, and was officially launched in North America in February 2008, while closed beta began in South-East Asia. Gameforge published Cabal Online in Germany on December 3, 2009. The service in North America provided by OGPlanet ceased on March 31, 2010, as the company did not reach an agreement with ESTsoft, while the latter subsequently re-established North American servicing directly.

Gameplay

As a typical MMORPG, gameplay in Cabal Online contains elements of both player versus player and player versus environment, as well as player killing. PvE elements include grinding and quests which reward players with items and experience points, as well as instances for obtaining assorted treasure and "Alz", the in-game currency. PvP elements include player-killing in special channels, arranged duels between two players with no penalties for either side, the Mission War system, which divides players into two nations, Capella and Procyon, as well as a Neutral faction, and has them wage war against each other in Tierra Gloriosa events, specific war channels and all higher-level maps, and lastly the Guild versus Guild system, allowing arranged mini-wars between two guilds. Players can band together to form a party, with a maximum of six characters. Bonus experience points are awarded to party members based on their contributions.
The game is divided into servers, or game worlds, each with its own unique name and set of further subdivisions - channels. While players from different servers cannot interact with each other unless they transfer to the same server using special premium items, they can switch freely through all available channels on one server, including Premium ones if they have purchased a Premium package. Characters in different channels cannot, however, assist each other directly; only characters in the same channel can interact. Chatting does bypass this restriction for chat modes such as private messaging, guild chat, party chat or personal chat rooms. All servers in each localization have equal content, apart from their player base and economy, but different regional versions of Cabal Online may have different content, in particular the Korean localization, which is always more up-to-date than the remainder. Each account allows for six characters per server, but only one account is needed to access all servers.
Channels employ different mechanics depending on their purpose. Those labelled in green are novice-friendly and have player-killing disabled, in contrast with white-coloured channels, which do not forbid it. The Trade channel is designed specifically for in-game item purchases and sales, applying restrictions to normal gameplay, such as removing access to instance dungeons and practice dummies, as well as removing all environmental enemies. Trading in this channel can be performed via channel-wide broadcasting or personal market stalls in which items can be placed and priced for general access. Any channels tagged as Premium can only be accessed by users who purchased a Premium package or equivalent from the Item Shop.

World

The world of Cabal Online is split into different zones, namely maps and dungeons. Starting players will only be able to access three maps and one zone, the "Warp Gate", which provides walking access to all the three initial maps. As they progress into the game and gain character levels, they will be given access to new and increasingly difficult maps, as well as instance dungeons. Each map has a different setting and weather; examples of these include deserts, forests, snow and ice maps and even a futuristic cityscape or hellish inferno. Each map has its own unique set of non-playing characters, such as quest characters and shops, as well as many monsters to fight and gain experience and treasure from. Travelling from one map to another is done by either walking through the Warp Gate links or by using Premium GPS Warp to instantly switch to a specific map. In assisting travel by foot, players may acquire special vessels, namely Astral Boards and Bikes, which provide greater speed, or use the special movement-enhancing skills "Dash" and "Blink", the latter exclusive to the Wizard class.

Character Classes and Specialities

There are eight character classes in Cabal Online. Once a character is created, the player must choose which character class it will assume. The 8 classes are the Warrior, the Blader, the Wizard, the Force Blader, the Force Shielder, the Force Archer, the Gladiator, and the Force Gunner. Different character classes provide different strategies, skill libraries, arsenal and even starting locations.
By levelling up, players will gain points that they can apply in three different attributes that will shape their character, those being Strength, or STR, Intelligence, or INT and Dexterity, or DEX. These attributes affect several secondary attributes which will effectively determine the strengths and weaknesses of the character. These secondary attributes are Attack, the physical strength of Sword skills, Magic, the magical strength of Magic skills, Defense, the resistance to enemy attacks, Hit or Attack Rate, the accuracy of all the player's attacks and Defense Rate, the rate at which enemy attacks are fully evaded or dodged.

Warrior

The Warrior class is the typical melee sword-user. They use Force to brutally enhance their physical abilities. They possess the highest innate vitality or health value and their offensive skills are slow and powerful. Their equipment set is by default the highly-defensive Armour Set, metallic armours made of various materials and two-handed swords, either Great Swords or Daikatana. They possess many strengthening buff skills that can even further enhance their capabilities, including party-targeted buffs. Their primary attribute is Strength which enhances their physical attack value and their resistance.

Blader

The Blader class is a fast sword-user melee class known for its enhanced dodging and accuracy, as well as the speed of its skills. They use Force to enhance both their dexterity and strength, giving them more flexibility than a Warrior. Unlike warriors, however, they possess only two party-enhancing strengthening skills; as such relying more often on their individual strengths even when in a party, namely their damage output and critical hit rate. Their equipment includes by default the Martial Set, a lightweight kimono-styled cloth which favours Defense Rate, or evasion, as well as a Blade and a Katana, or two swords of only one type if the player is so inclined.

Wizard

The third class is the Wizard and it is the basic magic-user. They use Force to amplify the power of the elements around them akin to what a Warrior does to its own strength. Their primary attribute is Intelligence which raises their magical attack power. They possess several buff skills that can affect not only themselves but any other friendly targets they choose, as well as many party buffs. Some of these skills are well known, namely the most basic ones which increase Health or Defense and are usually performed on newcomers to aid them in their initial progress. Their skills have a powerful damage output, but they have one particular difference from melee classes, which is their area of effect, or AoE. While melee classes deal high damage to lesser enemies with the same skill, Wizards disperse their damage through the highest area possible for all classes. Combined with the paralysing capability of all of their strongest skills, Wizards are crucial for controlling masses of enemies. Their main disadvantage is their lower Defense, but this can be tactically overcome by making use of the stun effect of their advanced magic. Their equipment set is by default the Martial Set and dual Orbs, single-handed globe-shaped controllers which spawn staves in recent versions of the game.

Force Archer

Force Archers are a variation of Wizards who prefer to manipulate rather than amplify Force. Because of this, their skills have a lesser area of effect in comparison to the Wizard's skills but, in contrast, their damage is more precise, more accurate and with a higher critical hit rate. They visualize and create a weapon in a way similar to the Force Shielder, which is the Astral Bow; this weapon enhances their accuracy and critical rate. They also possess the highest attack range of all classes, even higher than that of a Wizard. Unique to this class, they possess supportive magic such as powerful single-target and party Healing skills, as well as many useful buffs, especially some used on new players alongside the Wizard's. Their skills have the fastest casting time of all, giving them a high damage per second value. Force Archers value Intelligence and Dexterity, both for magical power and dodging, as well as the balanced Battle Set and dual Crystals.