GvG Mechanics

Guild vs Guild Battles (GvG's) are instanced battles in which players fight to gain control over open-world Home Territories, Resource Territories or to gain ownership over one of the six cities on the Royal Continent. The matches are fought in a 5vs5 format except when competing for the ownership of cities, in this case, the format is 20vs20.

The victor of a GvG battle is determined through a combination of capture points and killing the opposing team.

GvG battles are always fought with a full-loot ruleset. Black-zone GvG battles are considered one of the toughest challenges in all of Albion.

How to Initiate a GvG

To initiate a Guild vs Guild battle, an attack must first be launched from either a Siege Camp or a neighboring territory.

Launching an attack from a neighboring territory can be done at any time from the world map, if you have the correct permissions within your guild.
Launching an attack from a Siege Camp requires a player of the attacking guild to be at the Siege Camp, during the time frame when the Siege Camp is enabled. Clicking the Siege Camp-symbol on the world map will show you when it is possible to launch the next attack on a territory.

(?) Each territory has a GvG time frame as shown in the territory info box when clicking on the zone on the world map.

(?) GvG fights launched during the GvG time frame are scheduled for the next day at the first available slot.

If the attack is launch outside of the GvG time frame of the attacked territory, the attack is considered to be launched during the next time frame and will be scheduled the day after the next time frame.

If an attack was launched from a territory, there is a cooldown period and another attack can not be launched for the next 24 hours. (confirmed 24h or after/before next timeslot?)

GvG Costs

The basecost to launch a GvG costs is X.XX Silver (currently about 1.5m), but varies in price depending on the global discount.

There are ways to get back most of the attack cost:

90% of the costs are reimbursed if at least 1 point is taken from the defending guild during the battle. This is done to prevent attacks without players showing up for the fight.
5% of the attack cost goes to the winning team of the GvG battle.
If attacking team scores no points, 95% of the costs go to the defender and 5% is a silver sink.

Siege Camp

The timers of Siege Camps may vary depending on the GvG time frame of the zone, but an attack can be launched to the territory regardless (.. of what? they also auto pacify after an hour). See the information above about GvG time frames.

When launching an attack from a Siege Camp, you may use the battle vault to store your items for the GvG battle (see below for more information about battle vaults).

See the Siege Camp article for more information.

Picking Gear For a GvG Fight

During a GvG battle, guilds can only bring a limited amount of weapons and armor. The gear that is used during the gear must be prepared prior to the GvG and must be stored in the correct battle vault to be usable during a fight, in case one member of the team dies and loses his items due to the full-loot rule set.

It is advisable to organize the gear you are going to use during a GvG beforehand, this means, for example, picking the right spells or splitting stacks of buff-food or potions beforehand, so that during the heat of battle you are not distracted by inventory management and can just right-click equip your gear.

Each home-territory and each resource territory has their own, unique battle-chest and your team must place their gear in the correct territory or Siege Camp (the one you’re attacking from) to be usable during the GvG.

Battlevault

Battlevaults store up to 64 slots of items, with no weight restriction.
Only equipable items can be stored in a battevault:
- weapons
- armors
- bags & capes
- food
- Potions
- horses.

Siphoned energy can be placed into the chest as well.

Item Power Restrictions

GvG's on the Royal Continent are item power soft-capped, similar to yellow zones.

During yellow and red zone GvGs item power above 800 is reduced by 80% on the Royal Continent.

Examples:

1000 IP -> 840 IP
1300 IP -> 900 IP

Scaling item power caps are also in effect in GvGs that take place in the Low-Outlands and Mid-Outlands.

The IP caps are as follows:

Anglia & Glouvia (Low-Outlands): 50% scaling above 1000 IP (for example, 1500 IP becomes 1250 effective IP)
Cumbria & Siluria (Mid-Outlands): 50% scaling above 1200 IP (for example, 1500 IP becomes 1350 effective IP)

How to Join a GvG

If you are a member of the guild that is launching the attack, you can join a GvG by opening the guild menu ('G' per default), choosing the GvG you want to join and then click join. If you have the rights to invite your guild members to a GvG (see guild rights system) you can invite your team members or members of your alliance (?). Guild members with the permission (x?) can also kick players from a GvG.

Once the GvG starts (you’ll see a warning) everyone who signed up to the GvG will be teleported to the battle. Players fighting in the GvG battle must be in the correct zone when the GvG starts to be teleported. It is possible to zone in later as well (?).

if you’re attacking you can either be in the attacking zone or the defending zone
if you’re defending you must be in in the defending territory

GvG Fight Mechanics & Rule Set

Guild vs Guild fights have different rule sets, depending on the type of territory you’re fighting over.

The general rule set for a resource territory GvG battle are as follows:

Points:

Each team starts with 150 points. Teams can only lose points, but not gain points.
The first team at 0 loses the GvG fight.
There are 3 capture points (stones) on the map. At the start of the match, these are unclaimed.
Claiming a stone removes 1 point for the other team.
Every minute of the fight, the team with fewer stones will lose points - depending on the capture difference of stones captured
- If your team has fewer stones captured than your opponents you will lose 10 points every minute.
- If the enemy holds two stones and you hold none you will only lose 10 points, not 20 points.
- If the opposing team has captured all three stones, you will lose 20 points every minute.
- If a player dies, 4 points will be deducted from his team's score.

Timer:

At the beginning of a GvG, there is a 30-second timer, during which both teams are locked to their tent area to prepare and get ready.
A GvG fight can last for a maximum of 25 minutes. If no team has won at the end, the defender team wins.
When killed, a player must wait a certain time to respawn. This respawn time will grow longer as the GvG fight progresses.

Tents:

Players within the range of their tents are immune to damage and CC and regenerate a 20hp per second.
Enemies that come to close to the tent will be hit by a high damage beam to prevent tent-diving.

Special ruleset for City GvG (20v20):

Cities have 5 stones
Both teams start with 200 points
Kills during city fights are only worth 1 point
Having 1 more stone than your opponent will score 20 points
Having 3 more stones than your opponent will score 40 points
Having 5 more stones than your opponent will score 60 points
Scoring only happens every 2 minutes

Counter Attacks & Retaliate Mechanics

When a territory is attacked and the defending team successfully defends against the attack - they may choose different options depending on the outcome:

Counterattack: If the defending team wins with 100 points or more, the game triggers a counter-attack on the attacking territory 30 mins after the start of the initial GvG. Counter attacks happen outside of GvG slot times.
Retaliate: when the defending team lose a territory but own a neighboring territory (or a Siege Camp still available on the same map), they can launch a retaliate within 30 minutes of the ending of the GvG.
- Retaliates happen at the next slot available (what slot post S7?), unless done within 10 minutes of the full hour, then it goes to the next slot. For example, retaliating at 19:55 puts the GvG at 21:00.

GvG Lockout System

Getting locked:

When a player fights in a GvG, unless he wins a defensive GvG with 150 points, his character is locked for exactly 24 hours on the territory on which he used the battle vault. (war camps count as a separate territory adjacent to the territory in the zone they are in)
For City GvGs the lockout happens if the defender points reach 195 or below.
Automatic counter-attacks do not reset the lockout timer (Wrong, each GvG counts as a separate lock, as does the counter) ^{[confirmation needed]}
Retaliates reset the lockout timer. (Same as above, nothing gets reset it simply adds another lock. So at that instance you will be locked at several instances, this becomes relevant if you GvG in multiple zones next to each other in the same day)^{[confirmation needed]}

Lock effect:

For 24 hours, your character character can only defend this territory or an adjacent one, and/or attack from this territory or an adjacent one.
Adjacent territories are connected with a white line on the world map. Select All in the second drop-down menu in the upper right corner of your screen while viewing the world map.
The lockout lasts 24 hours and not 23 hours 59 minutes. For example, If you play a GvG at 20:00 on Monday, you cannot join a GvG starting at 20:00 on Tuesday unless territories are adjacent.

Ways to Train for GvGs

Arenas
- Item power soft-capped at 800 IP
- No risk of losing gear
- Can queue solo or as a group (up to 5)
5v5 Hellgates:
- IP above 1000 reduced by 50%
- Get very good fame (350k if you kill all bosses), and decent loot at the end from the middle boss
- Train 5v5 with real consequences
- Many of the 5v5 comps run in HG's are different then what is run in GvG at this moment
GvG Training Battles (Scrims)
- (guide: https://forum.albiononline.com/index.php/Thread/86776-GvG-Training-Battles-A-Quick-How-To-Guide/)
- most teams train with 1300-1350 avg. IP, so 8.1 or good specializations are needed.
Crystal GvG
- IP above 1000 reduced by 50%
- Train 5v5 with real consequences
- Requires a territory to participate

GvG Seasons

Guilds can compete in GvG Seasons, that last around 3 months and since Season 4 award special rewards for the top-ranked guilds. The details about the previous GvG Seasons can be found here: