Cities

Albion's Cities and Starter Towns

Cities and Starter Towns are safe, blue zones are considered the social and financial hubs of Albion Online. There are 5 Royal Cities and a capital, Caerleon, making a total of 6 cities and 5 Starter Towns.

The Cities appear as level 1 zones while the Starter Towns appears as level 2 blue zones. Each Starter Town is two zones apart from a Royal City, meaning that a player will have to travel through one zone and two-zone entrances to reach a Royal City from a Starter Town or Starter Town from a Royal City. There is no fast travel between Starter Towns and Royal Cities, but there is fast travel among the Starter Towns and among the Cities. The five Royal Cities are based in the Royal Continent and they surround the capital, Caerleon. Each of the Royal Cities corresponds to a biome and they are:

Biome	Royal City	Corresponding Starter Town
Swamp	Thetford	Swamp Cross
Mountain	Fort Sterling	Mountain Cross
Forest	Lymhurst	Forest Cross
Steppe	Bridgewatch	Steppe Cross
Highland	Martlock	Highland Cross
Every	Caerleon	-

The Royal Cities

Even though there are certain differences, there are plenty of similarities among the Royal Cities:

1. Each Royal City represents a Faction with different rewards and outpost bosses
2. Each Royal City has:
   • a local Bank where players can deposit their goods
   • a local Marketplace where players can exchange goods
   • a local Island Merchant
3. In each Royal cities there are the following NPCs:
   • Faction Enlistment NPC
   • Repair Station
   • Expedition Master
   • Arena Master Joan
   • Energy Manipulator
   • Vanity Merchant
   • Travel Planner
   • Artifact Foundry
   • 80 x Building Plots
4. There's a Realmgate in each of the Royal Cities except Caerleon.
5. Each of the Royal Cities has its own crafting and Refining bonuses.

Player-driven cities are bigger in size than the starter towns, and not without reason: players can buy a building plot and construct their own buildings. The mechanics to buy a building plot are explained in Oberon patch 4. There are 80 plots in each Royal City and people are always competing to get their hands on one. The main benefit of owning a plot and building in a city is the usage fee, which is how much other players have to pay to use the building. You can set an attractive price to be a business contender, but make sure it is worth the investment in the building! Alternatively, you can also just limit the building to your friends or guild with the access rights option.

Caerleon

Caerleon is the capital of the Royal Continent and retains some of the characteristics of the Royal Cities and some unique ones.

1. Caerleon represents a Faction City and participates in the Faction Warfare
2. Caerleon has:
   • a local Bank where players can deposit their goods.
   • a local Market where players can exchange goods.
   • a local Island Merchant.
   • a unique Black Market.
3. In Caerleon there are the following NPCs:
   • Faction Enlistment NPC
   • Repair Station
   • Expedition Master
   • Arena Master Joan
   • Energy Manipulator
   • Vanity Merchant
   • Travel Planner
   • Artifact Foundry
   • 118 x Building Plots
4. Caerleon's old Realmgate which is positioned in a different cluster, and is now inactive.
5. Conqueror's Hall
6. Caerleon Underground Entrance or Underway
7. Caerleon crafting bonuses are foods, tools and potions.

The Capital is surrounded by red zones, making the way to Caerleon very dangerous, but also very rewarding. The fastest way to cross the Royal Continent is through this amazing city, and with its proximity to all biomes, it is the strongest economic hub of Albion.

Although Caerleon works as a normal player-driven city, having building plots, special NPCs and Merchants, it is certainly not the same as the other cities. This is because it is the only city that has the Black Market.

Related Patch Notes

Patch Link	Date	Patch Name	Patch Notes
Version 1.17.406.180488	2 December 2020	Rise of Avalon Patch 10 and Hotfix 10.1	City Fights will no longer happen, and guilds will no longer be able to control cities. Guilds with Town Hall storage chests when the patch is deployed can retrieve their items from the City Bank "Recovery" tab in the same city.
Version 1.17.403.172369	12 August 2020	Rise of Avalon Update and Hotfix 1, 2	The In-Match Scoreboard for the Arena, Crystal League, and City Fights has been completely revamped. Changes include: Visual overhaul to match current UI style Shows each player's full equipment, including consumables After match completion, players can change to a second page containing tracked per-player match statistics about Kill Fame, Damage dealt/received, and Healing dealt/received After the match, pages can also be sorted by category
Version 1.16.392.158262	20 January 2020	Queen Update	Portal access to the Outlands from Caerleon has been removed Each of the other five Royal Cities (Bridgewatch, Martlock, Thetford, Fort Sterling, Lymhurst) retains its Realmgate Realmgates can now be found within Conquerors' Hall, which now appears in each city With the launch of Queen, all existing portal locks will be removed - the next Realmgate used will then activate a new portal binding
Version 1.16.392.158262	20 January 2020	Queen Update	Improved display of city crafting bonuses Increased city-specific refining bonuses of Royal Cities and their islands from 35% to 40% Caerleon gained a city-specific crafting bonus of 15% to gathering tools, demolition hammers, food, and potions (also applies to Caerleon islands)
Version 1.15.384.149008	29 August 2019	Percival Patch 4	Starting immediately, the full amount of the winning bid will be collected from the winner. Bids by non-winning bidders will be returned in full. Bids by current plot owners will continue to count double. For example, if the plot owner bids 10 million Silver and the next-highest bid is 16 million Silver, the plot owner wins the bid, since their bid counts as 20 million. The full 10 million will be collected. Likewise, in an extremely lopsided situation where (for example) the current owner bids 100 million Silver (for an effective value of 200 million) and the next-highest bid is 16 million, the full 100 million Silver will be collected from the owner. The Land Auction UI has been updated to reflect these changes, with prominent warnings that the full amount of the winning bid will be due.
Version 1.14.381.141987	9 May 2019	Oberon Patch 5 (Midseason Patch)	To reduce overcrowding, a second Marketplace cluster has been added to Caerleon, accessed by walking directly south from within the Bank of Caerleon. Both clusters give access to the same Marketplace, including all for-sale items, buy orders, sell orders, and purchased goods, and can be used interchangeably.
Version 1.14.381.140241	10 April 2019	Oberon Patch 2 / Free-to-Play Launch	Moving between clusters within a city (main city, bank, marketplace, etc.) no longer requires a cooldown period
Version 1.14.381.140241	10 April 2019	Oberon Patch 2 / Free-to-Play Launch	Portal Changes Each of the Royal Cities (Fort Sterling, Thetford, Martlock, Bridgewatch, Lymhurst) gains an Outland portal of its own The existing portal exits in the Outlands are split between the cities in the following way: Caerleon retains all 4 Portal exits in Mercia and the easternmost Portal exit in Cumbria (Alderwood) Fort Sterling gets 2 Portal exits in Cumbria (Coombe Tor, Bootsuck Fen) Lymhurst gets 2 Portal exits between Cumbria and Anglia (Hotshadows Plain, Thistlecopse) Thetford gets 2 Portal exits in Eastern Anglia (Slickhag, Hanging Valley) Bridgewatch gets 2 Portal exits between Western and Eastern Anglia (Midgebite Fen, Deepwater Fen) Martlock gets 3 Portal exits in Western Anglia (Roostcliff, Browngrass Meadow, Blencathra) Using a portal will: lock you to that city's portal color indefinitely also lock you to that specific portal for 20 minutes You will lose your current lock if you return to the Royal Continent using any other city portal You will gain a city's portal lock if you return to the Royal Continent using that city's portal or when respawning there after death in the Outland
Version 1.14.379.138841	20 March 2019	Oberon Update - Oberon Update Hotfix #1, #2, and #3	With Oberon, the two starter towns of each biome (ending with "Cross" or "Outpost") will be merged.