The Passage, Holiday Pack and GU 6 are here!

It’s a busy day, as we have a ton of new content and features for Anno 1800, so let’s dive right in to give you all the details you need! All of the below will go live today, December 10, at 6pm CET/ 5PM UTC/ 12pm EST/ 9AM PST.

 

The Passage DLC (part of the Anno 1800 Season Pass or 14.99€/$ stand-alone purchase)

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Construct arctic outposts in an all-new arctic session and bring them to life with the new Explorer and Technician residential tiers.

Conquer the skies

Construct a fleet of airships to speed up the trade across all sessions of your empire.

New Arctic goods

Master new production chains and arctic trade goods such as Pemmican, parkas and husky sleds.

Crucial warmth

Use the new heating system to ensure your residents survive the brutal cold of the Passage.

More industrial adventure

Take your Anno 1800 experience to the next level with over 60 new quests and over 80 new items.

 

Holiday Pack DLC (3.99€/$ stand-alone purchase)

Short description:

Bring the spirit of the holidays to Anno 1800 with this new cosmetic DLC pack, which includes 23 new ornaments that allow you to decorate your cities in festive style.

 

  • A festive carousel, including fan favorite vehicles from the game.
  • Two Christmas trees, to fit the occasion.
  • Santa’s Grotto, giving your citizens a chance to share their wish lists with him.
  • Three different markets stalls for your very own Christmas market.
  • A jolly hoard of Christmas presents
  • Two festively ornamented street lanterns.
  • An appropriately wintery snowman ornament.
  • A decorated hedge system with six tiles.
  • A decorated fence system with six tiles.

 

 

Game Update 6 (4.8GB download)

This free Game Update includes several much requested features, including the co-op multiplayer mode, in-depth statistics and a multi-copy tool for buildings.

You can find the full release notes here.

 

DevBlog: The Passage

DevBlog: The Passage

 

Dearest Elaine,
I’ve few breaths left. I die never having found a Passage, but then no glory awaits any servant of Sir John. He was certain the ice would not thicken around us in Spring. Fate of expedition now rests on circumnavigation of Terrier Island by short, perilous west shore, or by long, open east channel— fear I know what Sir John will prefer.
Farewell my Elaine.

The frozen north, a final frontier many felt it was their destiny to conquer, whether in the name of science, or for fame and riches. The “Northwest Passage” was a fabled sea route through the Arctic that promised to connect opposite sides of the Northern Hemisphere, conferring great wealth upon anyone brave enough to take an expedition deep into the ice.

From lush jungles to the frozen wastes – A chilling change of scenery
Our third and biggest Season Pass DLC, “The Passage,” tells a story of bravery and hardship, inspired by the valiant souls who risked their life in the name of progress, and tasks you to establish an outpost in the Arctic Circle. The sight of the eerie and beautiful wilderness invites everyone to follow in the footsteps of the Arctic explorers of the 19th century, while seasoned Anno players can look forward to an exciting challenge with a worthy payoff at the end.

 

The Arctic biome is a welcome change to the milder climate of the Old World and the hot and humid islands in the New World. Frozen shores under a dark sky, this barren wasteland allows us to tell a different kind of tale than you might be used to in Anno 1800™, and the harsh weather conditions offer interesting new gameplay elements. Our goal was that conquering the Arctic session should be an exciting endeavor as it will require you to rethink your strategies, away from raising big cities to carefully maintaining an outpost in a seemingly hostile environment.

The new campaign chapter of The Passage will send you on a rescue mission of an Arctic expedition. Inspired by the events of the Franklin Expedition, searching for Sir John and his crew will unfold a dramatic series of events with an unclear outcome.

We need to keep our people warm – managing an Arctic outpost
With much potential for striking visuals and room for interesting gameplay additions, we knew that the Arctic biome would be a perfect opportunity to play around with new gameplay mechanics. The new region should be an exciting adventure for everyone but a true challenge for achievers who want to conquer the wasteland in order to reap significant rewards.

Harsh weather conditions are your dire enemy in the north and the new heating mechanic will challenge you to rethink the way you used to create layouts in order to keep your residents warm and healthy. The two new residential tiers, explorers and technicians, are audacious adventurers who, in the name of progress, turned their back to the amenities and comfort of the modern city life.

 

While their population needs reflect rather pragmatic necessities, the wasteful luxury goods got replaced by the much more urgent need for heat. Residential buildings as well as production facilities need to be connected to a heat source to function properly, with the new category of goods providing additional ways of keeping your residents warm and heathy. The new heaters serve here as the foundation, radiators which allow you to provide a basic level of heat for every building in the vicinity. Like the electric power plant, it automatically places heat pipes along the street network, and thus is relying on street distance rather than a radius. But as its effectiveness is limited, maintaining and expanding your outpost becomes a jigsaw puzzle of proper space and heat management.

The Northern Hemisphere is an icy wasteland, and construction space, as well as basic resources, are sparse. Heaters operate by burning coal, which is hard to come by and requires you to construct charcoal kilns in the sparsely populated woods on islands located on the south or to import coal from the Old World all the way back to your Arctic outpost.
New goods such as sleeping bags or parkas will provide an additional source of comfort and thus let the heat meter rise. If you won’t be able to connect buildings to a heater, or if your fuel support falters, goods can provide a sufficient level of heat depending how well you can or want to supply your Arctic residents.
But with decreasing temperatures, the risk for a dreaded disease rises: The Arctic Flu. Similar to the illness in the Old World at first glance, the Arctic Flu is a much more dire opponent for your residents due to the harsh living conditions in the North. It spreads faster, is more resilient and has the potential to not only paralyze your fickle northern infrastructure but will also take its toll on your Arctic population. So keep your toes warm to avoid a nasty surprise in the morning.

Adapted to the permafrost – new buildings and production chains
Other than constructing heaters,your outpost will give you access to several new buildings and production chains adapted to the life up north. The Ranger Station will not only keep an eye out for fires in your outpost, it also provides medical support for your sick explorers, while the Canteen serves as a social gathering hub but also replaces the marketplace by issuing food and other goods. The Post Office is a new cultural need, allowing your researchers to stay in contact with their friends and families back home.
Population needs are as pragmatic as the fight against the freezing temperatures. To support your researchers with a steady supply of jerky, hunting cabins send out rangers to hunt for caribous, whale oil fuels your brass lamps and bear and seal pelts allow you to produce parkas and sleeping bags. But it is hard to survive up there without help from the Old World, and you will need to import canned food provisions and, as you can imagine, Arctic explorers don’t like if their schnapps flask runs dry.

 

To keep things going, your technicians found a new way of transportation for your snow-covered streets: the husky sled. Your trusty four-legged companions serve not only as a need for your technicians, they also provide satisfying visual feedback in your outpost.
Over time, your outpost will grow, and what seems like a barren wasteland for us is called home by others. The Inuit, a new third-party trader, are willing to trade when your stock runs low, as well as offer a variety of new items especially useful in the Northern Hemisphere.

As soon as you overcome the struggle and the daily life on the ice becomes normality, you will find that the Arctic also has plenty to offer. The North can become a profitable hunting ground for precious pelts and there are some especially rich gold deposits, which promise a more efficient supply of the rare metal than your mines in the New World. You will also be able to collect new sets for your museum and your zoo to allow your residents back home to get a grasp of this strange and wild place.

But you are not alone, as news about the natural resources spread quickly and as such, second-party characters will follow you on your path into the Passage to start their own settlements.

Conquering the sky – the Airship Hangar
For the ones overcoming the challenges of the hostile environment, a big payoff awaits: the Airship! Inspired by actual historical efforts to building zeppelins in the Arctic to avoid the brash ice, the Airship Hangar is the new monument coming with The Passage. Building this technical marvel will be a huge undertaking, as it requires you to import a lot of construction material from your larger cities in the South in order to finish the four construction stages of the monument. Once you finish the Airship Hangar, of which you will be able to build one in every Arctic settlement, you can start to construct your first airship.

 

Airships are the ultimate endgame vessel for your trade routes, but they are costly to construct. It not only takes a long time to build one, you also need a new resource to fill their balloons during construction: gas. While your old companion Nate happily supports your first prototype with a shipment of gas, the resource itself exists only in the northern region of the Arctic: to be precise, on barren ice cliffs. Without any real beach for ships to land, and missing any fundamental resources to construct a settlement, these islands are out of reach for any traditional vessel. If you dream of your own fleet of airships, you must claim the icy cliffs and establish your mining outposts with the help of an airbridge.

Airships can safely avoid pirates, and can take direct routes just over islands instead of slowly maneuvering around them. They have also a total of 4 cargo and 2 item slots. However, they are also more strongly affected by wind, and their unloading and loading process naturally takes more time than with a traditional ship.

But airships are not the only new addition to optimize your endgame logistics. Once transported into the Old World, the gas comes in handy if you build one of the new progressive gas powerplants. More effective than their oil-running cousins, the gas powerplant can operate without relying on trains to constantly feed their burners. If you can establish a trade route ensuring a steady supply of gas, the new powerplant can free up important space in your metropolis. But beware: as the gas is a rare resource, you probably must make tough decisions where it makes most sense to replace your old oil plants.

And while talking about technical progress, your scientific endeavors inspired our old friend Nate to work in new inventions, which will expand the crafting list for items you are not limited to use in the Arctic session.

An adventure of epic proportion awaits
The Passage is not only our biggest DLC yet, it is also a true passion project from the team. From the atmosphere, to the details to the amount of content coming with the final Season Pass content, we are eager to see how you like our adventure into the frozen wilds. With hundreds of Union members playtesting the content, it is also a true community project and shows how much influence you continue to have on Anno 1800 and its extended content.

Our third Season Pass DLC, The Passage, will release December 10th along with Game Update 6. The Passage expands the content of Anno 1800 with:
– A new Arctic gameplay session
– Rescue Sir Johns crew in a new story chapter for Anno 1800
– 2 new Residential Tiers: the Explorers and the Technicians
– 32 new Buildings, 7 new production chains and 13 new production goods
– Over 60 new quests
– Fight the cold with the new heating systems
– Construct your airship trade fleet in the new Airship Hangar monument

Until next time, when we will share the full list of changes and free content coming with Game Update 6!

 

Union Update: Winter is coming

End of October, we invited the Anno Union to go with us on an expedition to test the waters of the upcoming DLC The Passage as well as Game Update 6. Over the last couple of weeks, hundreds of Union members tested the upcoming content inside out and provided a huge amount of valuable feedback and reports.
After weeks of analyzing your feedback and working on improvements and polishing, it’s now time to break the silence and open the doors of our testing vault, sharing the next steps for the Union and the upcoming content for Anno 1800.

 

 

 

AnnoAfternoon: The Sunken Dragon – Friday 22.11 at 5PM CET
After barely escaping a burning city with their settlers, Community Manager Oli and Anno veteran Wolfgang are looking for a new home in Anno 1701. And wasn’t there also something about a mysterious artefact…?

AnnoCast: The Passage – Wednesday 27.11 at 5pm – 7pm CET
Don’t forget to pack your parka as it is about to get cold. We thought “Show don’t tell” is the best approach and therefore, we will bring you the next AnnoCast already next week!
Join us on an adventure to our arctic outpost to see the Passage and Game Update 6 (this includes a lot of sweet statistics) in action while we answer your most burning questions. You really don’t want to miss this one, as we plan to have a bunch of developers on camera in this almost two-hour long episode.

AnnoAfternoon: “In den kalten Norden” – German Episode – Friday 29.11 at 5pm CET
And right after our developer stream, our community team will follow up with a new stream, this time with a special German episode in the frozen wasteland.
So not only a good chance to take a look at the Passage after our developer stream, the team is eager to answer your questions or pass your feedback on to the developers.

As always, you can watch the livestream on our twitch channel twitch.tv/ubisoftbluebyte

And as we love that outside window from our studio into the outside window, we are always eager for feedback about our content. Give the channel a follow if you don’t want to miss any future episodes.

 

Union Talk Episode 4
With the Anno Union, we invited you all to help us developing the next big Anno game. And in that spirit, we love to share as many development insights as possible.
In the now fourth episode of our developer podcast, we talk about the postlaunch journey of Anno 1800, conceptions and misconceptions about developing content after the big release and how we continue to work with your input and feedback.

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And as this is a passion project from the development team for the Union, let us know if you would love to see more Union Talks in future and feel free to share your opinion on the topic matter of the latest podcast.

We will also drop new DevBlog’s in the upcoming weeks, where we talk about the development and show gameplay elements of the Passage as well as Game Update 6. Keep a keen eye on the Union for upcoming blogs and of course, we will soon share when The Passage and GU6 lands on your PC.

 

 

 

Annoverse Discord Roundtable Monday 25.11 at 7pm CET
And because feedback and communication matters, our Community Developer Basti and Community Manager Oli join another round of the Annoverse Discord Roundtable. The Roundtable is an AMA session in our Anno Fandiscord, where everyone can join asking us anything while the team answers your questions in Voice Chat, if it is development or community related.

So join us next Monday 25. November at 7pm for the German and a follow up English session at 8.30pm.

The Annoverse Discord is an great meetup place for great Annoholics new and old and we want to say thank you for the continues community support and for the hosting of the Roundtables. In that vein, we strongly encourage you to jump in the Discord yourself, as you will find hundreds of like minded Annoholics there to chat about anything Anno (and more)!

And that was it for this weeks Update but as you can see, it was mere the beginning. You can look forward to a lot of new and insightful content in the upcoming weeks to get you all prepared for journey into the frozen north – Winter is coming, after all!

 

Botanica, the Anno Soundtrack and the Winner of the Day Night Contest

Today marks the release of our second season pass DLC “Botanica” and Game Update 5. We are eager to see your comments on our latest content update and if you plan to share your marvelous gardens or just want to create content with the free Game Update 5, do not forget to let us know by commenting or mentioning our official social media channels such as @Anno_EN.

 

https://youtu.be/u_oq8Lfj9JQ

With five big updates as well as three DLC’s in total, the journey of Anno 1800 is far from over yet. With “Passage” sending you on a venturesome journey to the cold north and free updates like the upcoming Coop Mode and Statistic Overview, we will continue to expand the world of Anno 1800 until the end of the year. You will not have to wait too long, as we will share some details about our plans for the next big game update soon.

 

Anno 1800 Piano Suite

Our new Botanica Music Pavilion is a throwback to old classics and the perfect occasion to celebrate over 20 years of Anno history. And as a thank you for all the support over the years, we want to share something special with you. In partnership with the Anno 1800 composer Tilman Sillescu and Dynamedion, we present to you the music sheet to the original Anno 1800 piano suite.

Get the Anno 1800 Piano Suite notes here

 

If just for the collectors heart or for talented musicians (or the ones striving to become one) in our community, the music notes of the piano theme give you some exclusive insight in the work of the talented composer and invite you to create your own Anno 1800 music piece. Let us know if you are hungry for more, and don’t forget sharing your interpretations of the Anno 1800 music with the Anno Union. On that special note, how do you like the idea of a dedicated music stream, maybe with the composer Tilman himself as a special guest?

 

Anno 1800 vinyl and digital soundtrack

Our special vinyl edition of the soundtrack was in high demand since launch. And we are happy to tell you that this well looked after collector’s item is still available on the store of our friends from Black Screen Records.

And if you just can’t get enough of the Anno 1800 soundtrack, we also made it digitally available on various platforms.

• Soundtrack on Spotify
• Soundtrack on Youtube
• Soundtrack bei iTunes
• Soundtrack bei Google

 

 

Day Night Contest

With our free Anno 1800 week during this year’s gamescom, we allowed everyone to try out Anno 1800 and experience the new day night cycle, which is now available for everyone in Game Update 5, for the first time. Anno 1800 is already a dreamland for screenshot artists and we realized quickly: the new day night cycle is the perfect feature to challenge you with a contest.

Together with Corsair Gaming, we asked you to use the new lighting options to capture your city in a new light. And today, we happily announce the winner of our big Corsair Day&Night contest!

First place goes to: Karacolidea’s sunset in the new world!
Like in real photography, it is all about the right time of the day to get a painterly shot like this one, where the last light of the day transforms this new world settlement into a scene right out of a fairytale. Congratulations Karacolidea for this wonderful shot and the first place of our contest.
You will never be left in the dark with your new Nightsword RGB Gaming Mouse, MM800 RGB Mousepad and the ST100 RGB Headset Stand.

 

Second place goes to: Neckarmann’s under the full moon
It is almost too quite in that moody harbor piece and it is hard to tell if the scene is romantic or if the glooming full moon creates a feeling of unease. But that is the magic about Neckarmann’s screenshot and why we decided it is a well-deserved second place! The Nightsword RGB Gaming Mouse and MM800 RGB Mouspad will find its way to you!

 

Third place goes to: Carpo’s rising inferno
A quite scenery, villagers peacefully resting under the dark night sky….and a full on catastrophe in the making! We had a few great entries with spitting flames in the night but this one captivated us most.
Congratulations for the third place and for winning the Nightsword RGB Gaming Mouse.

 

Keep an eye out for a DM in the forum or on twitter from our community team, as we will need your address to send the Corsair gear and your Anno goodies on the way.

And without further ado, happy gardening everyone and until next time!

 

Devblog: Botanica

By the end of the nineteenth century, the world was largely connected by trading networks, and the industrial revolution brought a spirit of enthusiasm that modernized society. However, while democracy replaced monarchy in many parts of the world, the general populace had limited ways to be a part of cultural and intellectual exchanges. Workers often shared newspapers after a long shift, and eventually museums, zoos, and botanical gardens were made available for everyone. These places were once exclusively for the aristocracy, but ultimately they served as cultural gathering spots for everyone, exposing more people to a larger and more diverse world. Society entered an exciting age of exploration, preservation, and cultural exchange.

Botanica, the second Season Pass DLC, brings an additional cultural building project to the world of Anno 1800. From inviting green avenues, to flowery compositions or as wondrous as colorful exotic plants from far away, the botanical garden is a feast for the eye in your thriving metropolis. Coming with various sets of flora from around the world to use in your decorative garden modules, we add additional ornaments for Anno players who want to live out their inner expressionist.

 

 

The Botanical Garden – Experience the Floral Wonders of Mother Nature

Botanica has a total of 21 unique botanical modules, an additional greenhouse, and 11 new ornaments,   including flowerbeds and topiaries, which can be used in all three cultural building projects. The new ornaments work as connectors between modules, which leads to more freedom and creativity when expanding the botanical garden, zoo, or museum. To allow all players of Anno 1800 to build more freely, we will also bring the old plaza tile connectors back as a part of the free Game Update 5. We are excited to see players’ creations of stunning vistas, centerpieces surrounded by fountains, and challenging labyrinth structures.

The new ornaments are available via the botanical exhibition in the world fair, but in addition to that, we decided to make them largely available from traders like Madame Kahina and Archibald. Players will also get them as rewards for quests and new expedition events. The new event encounters will let you experience stories of keen botanists willing to risk everything to bring Mother Nature’s floral diversity to the people.

 

 

Your large garden estate begs to be filled with floral wonders, and for that we added new sets for the botanical gardens, with 59 new plant items in total. While previous zoo and museum sets mainly affected the attractiveness of your city, we will change things up with Botanica. The sets, whose themes are based on various plant families, their natural biomes, or their use for medical or other purposes, will grant you specific fertilities for the island where the botanical garden is located upon completion.

 

This gives the garden more practical purpose beyond city attractiveness, as it allows you to strategically place the cultural building on a production island to boost your economy. The Andean set, for example, will add precious coffee fertility on new world islands, or make wheat grow in the old world. On top of that, the effects further boost the productivity of the farms tied to that specific fertility. They affect the island where the garden with the full set is placed, with five different fertility effects for each biome and a total of nine sets. And as we want you to freely play around with the new options, we increased the amount of influence free modules for the botanical garden from 10 to 20.

 

The Music Pavilion – Enjoy the Symphony Orchestra

You have created stunning museum areas and zoo grounds, but we thought that one piece was missing, a true highlight in your cultural wonderland. The new Music Pavilion is the perfect gathering place for tourists and residents to listen to an orchestra playing symphonies of classic Anno themes while the sunset paints the metropole in a scenic light. Once you’ve found the five music notes containing themes from Anno 1701, 1404, 2205, 2070, as well as the “modern” classic from 1800, you can play them at any time to listen to the orchestra while taking a break from extensive trade route management. The Music Pavilion itself is not limited to the botanical garden; you can build one in each zoo, museum, or garden. The music tracks will also provide an attractiveness buff to certain sets in cultural buildings.

 

And here comes our second Season Pass DLC: Botanica, in numbers:

 

  • 21 unique botanical modules
  • 1 glasshouse module
  • 11 unique ornaments modules (such as flower beds and topiaries, usable with all cultural buildings)
  • 9 new sets for your botanical garden, consisting of a total of 59 plants items
  • The new Music Pavilion, which can be constructed in every cultural building
  • The Music Pavilion comes with 5 music tracks from the classic themes of Anno 1701, 1404, 2070, 2205, and 1800

That’s all for today’s insights about the second Season Pass DLC, a true content pack for all beauty builders out there, before we take you on an adventure in the icy north this winter.

Botanica will be available from September 10 as part of the Anno 1800 Season Pass or as a stand-alone purchase.

As always, please share your feedback in the comments below and stay tuned for future updates and content from the Anno Union community!

 

Union Update: Twitch Drop Event

In today’s Union Update, we get ready for the details about our Twitch Drop Botanica event before we follow up with Devblog: Botanica tomorrow and the next Annocast Devstream. Don’t forget to follow our Twitch channel to get notified when we go online with our developer stream this Thursday 4.30pm CEST. And as this week is already quite packed with Anno news and content, we will share the winner of the Corsair Day&Night cycle next week!

 

Twitch Drop Event: Botanica

To celebrate our upcoming Season Pass DLC Botanica and the Game Update 5, coming next week Tuesday on September 10, we will run another Twitch Drop event beginning this Friday.
The whole event takes place from Friday September 6 and to give you some time to pick your favourite streamer, will last until September 15.

 

During the Event, you will be able to watch how a variety of selected Twitch Streamers wake their inner artist and demonstrate how inspiring or questionable they make use of Anno 1800’s beauty building features.
Annoholics watching the shows can grab two brand new ornaments, the Anno Union flag and the Botanica billboard. The only thing you need to do is link your Uplay to your Twitch account and watch the streamers during the event for up to 3 consecutive hours to receive your loot.

You can check on how to link your accounts here: Ubisoft Twitch Drop FaQ

If you entertain yourself with Anno 1800 during the event for one hour, you will get the „Anno Union Flagpole” ornament and if you binge a channel for three hours, you will obtain the „Botanica“ Billboard to advertise your new botanical garden.

You can find the full list of all participating Streamer here:
ValleGaming (German)
monstersandexplosions (German)
Radlerauge (German)
writing_bull (German)
Mathia (Dutch)
Midnan (Dutch)
Achterklap (Dutch)
HeyChrissa (English)
YogsLomadia (English)
Caaaaate (English)
Belannaer (English)
Cringer (English)
Venalis (English)
rockalone (Polish)
losiugra (Polish)
urqueeen (Polish)

 

Anno 1800 on Uplay +

As you might know already, Anno 1800 will become part of the new Uplay + subscription service, where subscribers can play a vast amount of Ubisoft title, among them Anno 1800 including all DLC content.

If you are owner of the Anno 1800 base game and decide to join Uplay + or to test our new service for the first month, you will be able to enjoy our DLC content. However, please keep in mind to back up your save games, as activating the DLC’s will not be revertible on your saves. After your trial and subscription ends, these saved states of the game where DLC’s are enabled will not be playable anymore until you own the DLC or get access to the content via subscribing to Uplay +.

 

 

 

DevBlog: Sunken Treasures

The Queen has vanished! But you track her south to sunny Cape Trelawney, site of a great naval battle. In Sunken Treasures’ new Storyline, you will set out on a journey to resurrect the glory of an empire through one of its timeless symbols, the Royal Scepter, lost to the depths during the war. Only by building a vast territorial capital, and seeking out a flea-bitten crackpot by the name of Old Nate—being among other things, an innovator in deep-sea diving—will you be able to restore the empire to its former glory. But beware, you are not the only one hoping to claim the power of the legendary artifact.

Our first big content drop for Anno 1800, Sunken Treasures, will set you on a quest for glory and riches, in which you make history, erecting a new capital to bring a dwindling empire back to its former glory.
We do not want to spoil the fun yet, but can say that an epic new questline will expand on the world of Anno 1800 and the background of its characters. In today’s DevBlog, we will put Sunken Treasures under the looking glass and reveal the first details of this sizeable first DLC (which is both available as part of our Season Pass, as well as stand-alone come release day).

 

 

Crazy inventions, lost treasures and dreams of a mega-city

Sunken Treasures’ epic questline, which will become accessible as soon as you reach 700 artisans for save games both new and old, will give you access to a whole new European session: Cape Trelawney.
Space in Anno is precious, as it is the most valuable resource in the jigsaw puzzle of growing a prosperous metropolis. While finding layouts for your production chains and space for your citizen to thrive is part of the fun, many of you always dreamed of something bigger.
With the new continental island, we want to give you the sandbox to toy around with your wildest ambitions. Three times as large as the biggest islands of the main game, this colossal landmass comes with 300 grids worth of coast and more natural resources and fertilities than ever before. While the session itself comes with additional big, medium and small islands to allow the AI to settle or to create your own outposts, the earth on the continental islands is fertile and its mountain ranges rich with resources. You won’t have to worry about keeping your Beer production running with cargo loads of imported hops, as the continental islands fertile ground will allow potatoes, wheat, hops and many other things to grow.

 

“The present is theirs; the future is mine” Old Nate

Rumors spread among your crew about a hermit living on an isle of wonders, a shabby-looking scavenger and inventor who prefers the company of his own automatons. But don’t let the cock-and-bull stories of your crew fool you; Old Nate may just be a genius— a genius who is willing to share his ground-breaking inventions with all comers, so long as the price is right…

 

Anno 1800 offers a huge amount of items to optimize your economy and to customize your playstyle.
While traders, expeditions, quests or city attractions provide you with various ways to get your hands on items such as precious specialists or machines, there is always a game of chance attached, as the rarity and type of item depends on loot tables.
With Old Nate, we not only introduce another Third Party character, but we are also giving you access to a new game mechanic, revolving around the inventions of the quaint inventor: crafting.

Armed with one of his groundbreaking inventions, the new diving bell steam ship, he will sent you on a hunt for sunken shipwrecks to bring him the construction materials needed to finish his experiments. Following your instinct, quests or the literal X marked on a treasure map (turns out X does sometimes mark the spot), will lead you to the wreckages of the old battle of Trelawney.
Once you found a wreck, you can launch the diving bell, which allows you to sink down to the bottom of the ocean floor to uncover its lost treasures.
The ship itself is quite an astounding invention. It comes with a unique combination of 6 cargo slots and 3 item slots, which makes it perfect for dangerous expeditions. It functions similarly to your flagship, which means you will only get one ship during the questline and if the diving bell ship gets destroyed, you will be able to replace it.
You can also enhance the ship’s special abilities with wondrous gadgetry such as the sonar, which will be your most powerful when looking for shipwrecks.

Once the bell is hoisted back up the surface, you can see what your courageous crew found down below. While precious spoils such as gold, or pearls, can be sold for a huge profit, the new scrap items show their worth as soon as you bring them back to the eccentric Old Nate, as they serve as crafting material for his inventions.

While the Cape is famous among soldiers of fortune, you will also be able to extend your hunt for Sunken Treasures to existing sessions like the New and Old World!

 

“To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.” Crafting

Once your ship is all loaded up with scrap of various quality levels, you can return your cargo to Old Nate’s island. In his workshop you gain access to a large variety of item blueprints for powerful devices such as automatons, which will come in handy when creating a larger-than-life city.
However, as you have total control and the freedom of choice to pick which item you want to create in his workshop, it is up to you to work out which combination of items work best for your production pipelines. Furthermore, every item needs a variety of different scrap materials to create, with increasing scrap costs based on the rarity of the item.
With the new crafting system, we wanted to provide you with a tool to create the items you truly desire. As you have full access to Nate’s blueprints, you can also plan ahead and work towards more powerful creations further down the road. Combined with the general pool of items in Anno 1800, the new crafting system becomes especially valuable in the endgame and we cannot wait to see how veteran Anno players will take advantage of the new possibilities to maximize the potential of their empire to levels previously impossible.

 

 

Expanding the world of Anno 1800

For the first big DLC, we wanted to work with as much player feedback as possible to expand the world of Anno 1800. With the large continental island, we are giving you a chance to create a true mega-city, and with the new crafting system you will have the agency over items that many of you asked for. We cannot wait to see your reaction to new storyline as many of you stated that you wish for more tales to unfold after finishing the campaign. There is even more than we mentioned today, such as new animals for your zoo, items for your museum or all-new secrets to unravel.

Last but not least, here is Sunken Treasures in numbers:
• A new storyline to experience, with up to 6 hours playtime plus dozens of new additional quests

• A third session including new small, medium and large islands as well as a continental island which is three times as large as the previously biggest island in the game.

• The additional third party trader “Old Nate” who provides access to a brand new crafting and diving bell feature.

• Over 100 new items, including new quest items, dozens of inventions to craft, additional specialists and new sets for your museum and your zoo.

 

How and when to get Sunken Treasures

We will see you again next week, when we will not only show you the DLC during our AnnoCast Live-Stream on Tuesday, July 23 at 4.30pm CEST, but also share the details about all quality of life features and other changes coming with Game Update 4. Spoilers: You may see a thing or two that the community has been waiting for, which will be coming free to all Anno 1800 players.

So how and when can you get your hands on Sunken Treasures? You will have three options to join us on this latest adventure:

Buying our Season Pass: It includes our three planed DLCs Sunken Treasure, Botanica and The Passage, at a rduced price versus individual purchases. You will also get access to some exclusive goodies in the form of two company logos, and an additional player portrait, which are only available as part of the Season Pass.

Buying it à la carte: Each of our three DLCs will be available as a stand-alone purchase at launch, though buying them this way will be more expensive than via our Season Pass.

The Anno 1800 Gold Edition: If you haven’t joined the industrial revolution yet, we have a new option for doing so in the best way possible, thanks to our new Gold Edition. This digital purchase will be available on the Epic Games Store and Uplay, and will include both the Anno 1800 Digital Deluxe Edition and the Season Pass, giving you the full Anno 1800 experience in one handy package.

All of these options will be available to you when Sunken Treasures launches alongside Game Update 4 on July 30.

Announcing the Anno 1800 Season Pass and our free content plans

One of the most frequently asked questions over the past weeks and months has been what kind of post-launch content and support players could expect from Anno 1800. Today, we are happy to answer some of those questions, as we announce our Season Pass, which consists of three DLCs (which will also be available separately) that we plan to release throughout 2019. We are also giving you a first glimpse at our free content plans, and detail how you can upgrade your standard edition of the game to the Digital Deluxe Edition to secure the Anarchist character that we will release in the coming months.

The 1800 Season Pass is here

Let’s start with the biggest news: We are announcing the Anno 1800 Season Pass, which will give players access to three big content drops that we will be releasing throughout the year.

Our goal with these DLCs is to offer a variety of content that expands on all the new features and systems of Anno 1800. This includes some new additions that the community has been asking for or speculating about. So let us a first teasing look at what to expect when you buy the Season Pass.

DLC 1: Sunken Treasures

Expand your island with a new European session and large continental island, as you join an eccentric inventor and his diving bell on a treasure hunt.

DLC 2: Botanica

Grow your city’s attractiveness to new heights with a modular Botanical Garden, allowing you to earn new items and rewards as you draw the tourist masses to your floral masterpiece. Alternatively, construct the new Musical Pavilion and enjoy beloved tracks from previous Anno games inside your city.

DLC 3: The Passage

The Passage will take you on a new adventure to the Arctic Circle as you explore the legendary Northwest Passage. To succeed in this merciless climate, you will need to construct an arctic outpost and master all-new production chains and goods.

Cosmetic Content (available on Day 1)

Buyers of the Season Pass will also immediately receive three cosmetic customization items that you can use to customize your game profile for multiplayer: the prisoner portrait, and two exclusive company logos (“Promethean Fire” and “Eagle Crest”).

The Anno 1800 Season Pass is now available for digital purchase and is priced at 24,99$/€.

Upgrade your game to Digital Deluxe and secure the upcoming Anarchist character

Another question that has frequently popped up is how players who have bought the standard edition of Anno 1800 could get access to the Anarchist character when it is released. This is now possible, thanks to our Digital Deluxe Edition upgrade, which you can now buy to upgrade your version of the game.

Doing so unlocks fours things for you:

  • Access to the Anarchist character (once he releases in the future)
  • 4 unique company logos you can use to customize your profile (now available)
  • A digital version of our beautiful artbook (now available)
  • A digital selection of music from Anno 1800’s orchestral soundtrack (now available)

Also, to avoid any confusion: The Anarchist is only available as part of the Digital Deluxe Edition, the Digital Deluxe Edition Upgrade and the Pioneers Edition. It is not part of the Season Pass (see above for details on what is included in the Season Pass).

So, who is the Anarchist, exactly?

“A self-proclaimed anarchist, Dr. Mercier has created a radical new society free of the state. Formerly champion of a union of student dentists, Mercier was asked by the Queen to use his popular appeal to pacify increasing threats of revolution in her territories. Instead Mercier sided with the protesters, declaring the people’s complete independence from crown authority.”

In game terms, the Anarchist is a new NPC opponent you can select to play against, including his own unique set of quests and rewards for the player to tackle. And while we don’t want to spoil too much, we can safely say that he will bring a very flavorful and unique playstyle to the game, with his own set of behavioral rules that mirror his views on politics and society.

Consider yourselves warned…

Did someone say Free Content?

As you can see from the above, we do have some big plans to support Anno 1800 and to make sure it stays exciting and fresh for our Annoholics. To this end, we are also planning to deliver regular Game Updates that will be free for all players of Anno 1800. Those will not only include bug fixes and ongoing balancing, but will also include all-new game content- some of which is a direct result of your feedback here on the Anno Union. So let’s see what’s in store (Note: We can’t promise any dates when this content will hit, so the below order does not necessarily reflect how it will be released).

Statistics Building

One request we have seen from many of the more experienced Anno players that love to go all in on the min-maxing is to have more information about their production chains and their output available. To provide you this information, we will be introducing a new statistics building in the future.

Co-Op Mode

You asked for it, and we listened: Anno 1800 will receive a free co-op mode in a future update, allowing you to team up with your friends to take shared control of a single empire as it evolves throughout the industrial revolution

Community Challenges

We will be giving the Anno Community regular challenges that will require all of you to come together to reach a shared goal. Doing so will unlock new cosmetic customization options like company icons or even skins for all participants. Go Anno union!

And that’s it for today! We know that you are all busy enjoying Anno 1800 as it currently stands, but we hope you enjoyed this first glimpse of what we have planned for you in the future.