One of the most sought after items in all of Tibia, its power is unmatched by any weapon save that of the one use Ice Rapier. The weapon entered Antica in the early days before the wipe and was discovered by Arieswar and Taghor. As the item was illegaly added to the game, it was removed a few days later as described by the story below.

The sword showed up again around 1999, this time illegaly apearing inside a cyclopse, where it was found by Ghaleon. He made a deal with Arieswar who was the highest leveled character in Tibia at the time and he used it for a week before Guido found out. Arieswar's depot was deleated as punishment for not reporting the weapon (though some say it was for illegialy duping a second one).

It was not until the 2003 Tibia convention that the weapon returned. This time the sword returned as a prize to the orginizers of the Burg Waldeck convention from Cipsoft. Hagbard, a GM and one of the orginizers of the convention, held a private auction for the weapon only alowing cirtin people of merrit to bid on the item. Sioberry bought the item for around 5.5million and put it up for sale himself. Recca tried to buy the item for 6.5million in goods and cash, using Alex as the middleman, but Alex had other plans and stole the whole lot. According to recent posts, Alex had a change of heart and returned the cash to Sioberry. The sword only surfaced briefly in Lightbringers house for a super rare showing and has not been seen since.

The real story of the cyclopsemania sword

-info by arieswar

Taghor and Arieswar where exploring the poh dragon lair with the new found knowledge that a pick would sometimes open up a hole on muddy ground. None others knew this was the case since it was a new feture of the update. Arieswar block and killed the dragons and dragon lords that resided inside the lair and used the pick to hit every peice of mud patch inside. They had no luck, so they destroy fielded all the firefields in the lair and picked the mud spaces they left behind.

At last they found the proper hole and droped into the lower level. More fire covered the floor, but one fire field caught their attention as it had a body lying under it. They destroy fielded that spot and serched the body. It contained a key to an unknown location (Knightwatch Tower), a book and some other junk.

The key was a wonderful new find and just as they where about to leave the body of junk behind, arieswar checked the stats of the plain sword and his jaw droped to the level below them. Inside the bag was a weapon far beyound the power of ANYTHING ever used ingame, a wooping 80/60 skilled one handed sword.

Taghor recived a sov as compensation for Arieswar to keep the sword and aries used it for 3 or 4 days before Guido angerly came and demanded the weapon. Rumor had traveled fast and he was angery that a map maker had illegaly hidden it for himself.

Guido took the weapon and destroyed it, leaving in a huff.

The second cyclopse sword was found by Ghaleon inside a cyclopse. It too, was just a regular sword graphic, but with tremendous power. Ghaleon messaged Arieswar and offered him a deal for the sword and Arieswar gladly accepted, wishing to maintain his many level lead on everyone.

After Arieswar had used its impressive power for a week, killing dragons in 2 or 3 hits (their skills and levels where no where near 100 then), Guido found out about the weapon returning to Tibia again and decided to punish Arieswar for not reporting it, by deleated his entire depot, including the sword.

The Introduction of the Crown and Crystal wand

The crown ended up with Lightbringer, who sold it some years later when he quit for a million gp, and the crystal wand was bought by Warax and eventually was deleted along with his character. The crystal wand which was once an ultra-rare item became a once a day spawn in the new Demonia. With the introduction of the quest system this item is now obtainable by every Tibian.

The crown was thought lost but surfaced again when Sheppii purchased the item. The crown, along with many other rares adorned his house for years until he was forced to sell it to pay for a relative's medical bills. It sold for around 2billion to a character on Firmera. As quickly as it was bought it was resold to famous Rio Dos Coins who has the crown displayed in his house.

Blessed Shield introduction

The blessed shield was first introduced with the beta 5.1 update on June 18th, 1999 (Carlin update). During this time CIP had solicited the player base for help in designing graphics to replace the old Ultima graphics that were in use and expand the game's equipment to match a growing player base. Elleshar was known for his hard work in creating many of the difficult environmental graphics that few people wanted to make themselves, as people liked creating new swords, shields, and rainbow-colored dragons instead. It was common for graphics designers to get one item as a reward for their work.

In Elleshar's words: "Greetings, well...what happened many years ago was that this game had some legal troubles due to CIP using graphical design not belonging to them (Google: Ultima 6 and 7, and you will find similarities). They reached out for help to redesign the graphics, and I agreed to help them out together with some other people(at the time, the CIP company was a few sweaty boys in a basement). As payment I asked for a "rare-set", which Guido refused to give me. He told me that I could get just one item. So, after thinking things through I thought a blessed shield would be useful. As a blessed shield was worth more than a rare-set. Guido gave it to me as he had previously agreed to give me "one" item. That was how the blessed shield came to Tibia."

The shied had a monstrous 50 defense which eclipsed even the Great Shield at 42 defense. Back in these days you could lose 100% of all your items so even carrying a rare item like this was a serious risk.

"But I did not have much use for it myself, and running around with such an item when you could loose it at any given time when you died. Well that seemed a bit risky. So I thought it was better to sell it and get something useful for it instead. I asked around and got a few good offers from most of famous dupers at the time. The most interesting offers came from Lightbringer, Slayn, Yi and Müsli if I remember correctly. Müsli (bär) did not offer the most for the shield but promised to keep it out of the market inside his depot. I sold it to him for a rare-set containing HOTS, MM, e-plate and SoV and I think an extra MM and some gold. I can't really remember. I think me selling the shield pissed Guido off a bit. Might be the reason for me not being a senator after being part of helping them out with graphics and being a game master for a couple of years..."

Some years later Müsli broke that promise to never sell and placed the shield on the new WOT action system. Elleshar was quite angry about this turn of events and vented his anger on the now defunct World of Tibia board.

"To Muesli. I am dissapointed.

What can I say else than that you seem to have lied to me completly. What we agreed on when I sold you the blessed shield (a lot cheaper than what I was offered from others)was that you would never sell it to anyone except me or if I gave my acceptence to you for selling it. But I have not given you any acceptence for selling it in the auction or to anyone else.

I will be resonable. I will offer you everything I have and put myself if debt to a friend to buy that shield back.

I give you the same amunt of items and gold you gave me. Accept this if you have any honour left in your body or keep it in your depot forever.

Elleshar AkA Joseph Alkebradt"

Years later Müsli set the record straight on why he sold the shield. It was not a broken promise to never sell it, but a promise to only sell if it wouldn't destroy Tibia's in game balance as 50 defense was a real game destroyer.

"I somehow ripped up "Elleshar" but not really on purpose IMHO.

I promised "Elleshar" not to sell the Shield, as long as it can destroy tibia, after he sold it to me.

Reason was cause it was WAY to powerful back in times, like +10 shilding or something of all other available shields!

I was one of the richest player back in time and thus i offered "elleshar" to buy it and keep it locked in my depot forever so tibia does not get destroyed by that one shield.

Whole tibia community in year 1999/2000 had fears that that one shield alone will change whole game balance! myself included!

In year 2001 for me it looked like it is not that critical anymore to have that shield in the wild. Thus i decided to sell it and sold it for like 10-20 Millions i guess (not sure if i remember the price correctly ).

20 Millions back in time maybe would be like 1 billion now-days i assume.

BUT also Lightbringer promised me not to use it.

But yes i broke my promise to "Elleshar" somehow if i remember correctly.

That was the only time i broke any promise.

Muesli was as one of the most honest traders, when you still had to trade based on trust and not the new market system."

The shield did indeed change hands at the conclusion of the auction to the well-known rare collector Lightbringer who had bid up the auction to the unprecedented price of 5 million, which was the cap that the auction system had. The deal between the two was fair, and Lightbringer also promised to never use it.

Lightbringer held the shield for years and loved showing off the priceless artifact as well as other rares in Thais depot to the delight of all. This was a risky move as one kick could see him lose the shield forever, and players of this time loved to trash the depot which would be near impossible to get the shield back. Trashing a depot was a serious concern in these days as they often used macros to bury the items and you had to remove each item by hand, either placing it in your depot if you had it opened, your backpack, or on the ground. You could not open your depot until removing all items from it so once trashed it would remain unopened. Despite Lightbringer flashing the shield many times, he never once lost it.

It was on one such showing that a young player saw this shield for the first time. It was a magnificent item in a world that had many ugly graphics, and it was such a well-known rare that it became known as one of the cardinal rares of the age: The cyclopsemania sword, the crown, the dragon scale legs, and the blessed shield.

This young adventurer wanted more than anything to be able to own this for himself and began his own journey to save up the money needed to perhaps buy this rare one day. Buying a super rare was a bit expensive and this player was very broke. Not one to be discouraged, the player began his career of trading, building up a reputation as an honest rare seller as he made small amounts of money turn into slightly larger stacks by reselling bps of xbows from Thais to Fibula to pocket 200gp profit each bp.

Though few had ever used the shield for its intended purpose, the shield was still too powerful. Between June 15th, 2002 and November 04th, 2002 the shield's defense was reduced to 45 def. Even in these days Tibia was an old game and Lightbringer eventually lost interest as his real life became more important. He sold the shield privately for an "offer that nobody could overbid".

The shields new owner was less inclined to let any know they possessed it, so the shield vanished from view and almost from memory. As time wore on and the mystery of ownership deepened, some speculated that the shield had been deleted or lost. To the young player who had his eye on the item it was a disappointing possibility, but he was still very far away from even placing an offer so continued to save in the hope that it was not lost forever. Money was useful for other things after all.

The shield however did resurface many years later after having apparently been stolen in a hack. Gryphee on Antica began displaying the shield along with a bronze necklace and ball gown in his Ab'dendriel house. It was rumored that he was the thief or at least had close connection to them but was unconcerned with the impropriety of the rumor and showcased the item for a while. The rare vanished again, presuming to be sold but again no owner came forward and the shield fell back into myth. (year?)

The Blessed Shield now had a defense of 40 and was still very powerful, but no were near as possible as it once was. Other rares of Tibia has met the same fate as CIP realized they were still too powerful for the game, so reduced them to allow for a more steady progression.

Few things in Tibia are ever lost and so it was that the shield sprang up again into the light, this time being auctioned on a polish ebay like website which required the buyer to meet the seller in person to do the deal. A rich offworlder who's main I have already forgotten (he was level 540 mage I think) purchased this shield for 4000 PL (1,200 USD). This offworld mage relisted the item themselves, selling the shield for 1.2billion gp, the same price that the Cyclopsemania was sold for. Rumor was he was casting his play and advertising that he was looking for 5000 euros for the shield.

It was at this moment that the young adventurer, no longer young by this time, looked at the money he had accumulated from his trading and realized that he was still short and couldn't even make an offer. Though it was possible to pay the high real-life price, he was not interested in spending so much and preferred to continue his routine to save.

A rare of this caliber is one which rarely remains available for long and so it too was quickly sold for real life cash to some rich buyers. This would be the last time that the shield would vanish from the world and it was truly thought that no player would be able to gaze upon it except in hidden dungeons and sometimes on the test server. The shield vanished like a ghost and not long after the young adventurer followed, selling all his things and focusing on his life beyond the Tibian world.

It was some years later that another young adventurer, named Sheepii, sought after the fame that Lightbringer had as a rare collector and began offering outrageous amounts of money to scoop up every rare he could find. Sheepii managed to track down and buy the rose shield, cyclopse sword, crown, hots, horned helmet, winged helmet, white dress, and many more rares. These he proudly displayed in his Thais house, and if these items had been hidden from the world before, they were very publicly on display now, and shone brighter than any sun.

It is unknown what brought the now old adventurer back, but all former Tibians return to the call. He returned in 2001 and borrowed 2million gp from his guild to begin his great work once again. The first million he spent on rebuying his house back, preferring to live in the quiet shop south of Venore. The remaining million went into the slow process of buying djinn items and reselling them. It is said that if you gazed into the desert on the weekend that you would see the deep path carved into the sand from the heavy backpack of knight armors the young adventurer carried.

As time wore on, Sheepii decided to hold an event were the prize was the shield. He posted a riddle and said that he wouldn't need to be contacted for the winner to take his prize. The riddle revolved around the Nightmare Knights and many tried to solve the quest. Unfortunately, the Tibian community is not what it used to be and there were no winners. The key to quest was that you had to make a character which had "shieldbearer" in the name and they would be allowed to walk into Sheepii's house to claim the shield. The young adventure discovered that house access was the only likely way to win the reward but was unable to come up with the right combination that would allow access.

The shield may have remained here forever except that time marches on and just like Lightbringer, Sheepii decided it was time to leave. He needed money to pay for a family members operation and began selling his rares. The shield went up on the boards for 5billion which was a very high price. Unfortunately, it was a poor time for selling and no one had the capital to buy such prized items, and other bidders focused their money on the cyclopse sword which was also for sale. The other rares he slowly sold but the shield remained after a month of being for sale with nary an offer.

Our young adventurer had been quite a successful trader since he began his quest over 20 years ago. He had gained and lost great fortunes, had rebuilt again and again, and now finally had the money to make an offer after a successful stint world trading across all of Tibia's 72 worlds. 5 billion was still a vast sum to him so he offered the price he had available, thinking that some other would take the winning bid or the offer would be rejected. After some talk Sheepii believed that 3 billion gold was a fair sum for this iconic artifact.

Ecstatic that at last his dream would come true, the old adventurer met with Sheepii in the vacant Edron depot. 3 billion was still impossible to safetrade and was more than could be posted on the market. It was agreed that they would first trade money for the white dress and silver necklace, and then trade those items for the crown, before doing the trade for the white dress and necklace again. Finally, all four items would be offered in exchange for the shield.

The deal went smoothly, and the shield was his. After 20 years of hard work the player was rewarded with not only fulfilling a dream, but also briefly owning several other incredibly rare items. Satisfied after so much time, the shield was placed for viewing in the wealthy town of Venore in the Antican house he had brought with his borrow million by Salvation street and rests there to this day. It is said that those who gaze through the open window can feel the divine protection it offers.

As for the guild he borrowed from, rumor is its wealth has increased substantially, and rent on their many properties has been paid in perpetuity. Their recent acquisition of the Riverspring monastery as a community hall stands as testament to how a small kindness can one day prove to be a lucrative opportunity.

-Karr Chaos
Shieldbarer

Ps. No story of the shield would be complete without mentioning that 2 others are rumored to exist, given as gifts by the gods to players on non pvp worlds. Others may exist but presently there has been no others seen on display so if they exist, they are hidden away behind depots.

The Demon Leg Quest

The first few pairs of Demon Legs entered the game in the earlier years after the wipe (check this, taghor story? Arieswar? Flamehead?) many years before as a once ever quest so these legs remained a rare sight only seen in the possession of Lightbringer. However, this would not remain true forever as Cipsoft had decided to re-add the demon to the game, which was far more challenging than its original daemon predecessor who was deathly frightened of flowers.

Lightbringer and Genisis GE began exploring Edron after the new island was introduced and found the new Demon in the depths of the hero cave north of town. Genisis GE was a very high magic leveled mage at this time with magic in the 90s. The two of them became the first to kill these new demons, uncovering them deep within the new dungeon.

There was one room which was very frightening as it contained 8 of the new demons which would be certain death. The secret to passing the room unscathed was a narrow walkway of pz which zigzagged all over the area. You could not see the pz during this time so it would have been very nerve-wracking to navigate safely. Upon the other side was the difficult demon quest (now known as the demon helmet quest) which had 4 demons and was quite hard for players not even over level 100. They persevered and managed to clear the room of its demonic presence and noticed a small chest at the circular room. They walked over to the light brown chest and inside contained a pair of demon legs, 8 small diamonds, ring of the sky, dwarven axe, an ankh, a blue tome, a never-before-seen medusa shield, and a one-of-a-kind guardian halberd! As all quests with rares spawned only once per map reset, the two of them did not expect to gain more from the chest so they divided the items and left with their newfound treasure.

It was sometime later when the rest of Antica started to become brave and other teams decided to try these new demons. When they cleaned the demon room, they also found the same treasure inside. They did what Lightbringer had not and cleared the room the following day, discovering the same treasure had appeared again! Word of this treasure spread quickly and every day teams cleared the room and took the loot, turning the once unique and rare items into common treasure.

Introduction of the SoH

The Shield of Honor entered the game on January 7th, 2002 as a gift to those who purchased a premium account of 7 months (link to dated news archive on tibia site). "On 7th January 1997 Tibia went online for the first time. This means that today is Tibia's fifth birtday! Because of our anniversary we want to give a special present to all players who sign up for a 7 months premium account or extend their premium accounts by 7 months. They will receive the so called shield of honor. This is a limited time offer. The payment must arrive until 31st January."" This special promotion, to celebrate Tibia's 5th anniversary and kick start the introduction of premium accounts that has launched only three months earlier, caused a huge uproar by the player base who felt that Cipsoft was offering money for real life money. It was difficult for people outside of Germany to purchase premium in those days, but many players did to get their shield by buying a year of premium. Though Cip would later offer an outfit as a thank you for premium time, they would never again offer items directly until the introduction of Tibia Coins.

The shield was quite a nice item to look at but was mostly used as a decorate item as there were better options for defense. I remember at the time players trading them for 30k a piece. I paid for premium myself and got one, selling it for a profit when it climbed to 45k a piece. Now these rare shields are only presented through rare fansite contests and the even rarer Cipsoft contests such as the book writing contest which added 20 of these shields to the game. In more recent times this shield sells for many 100's of millions like other old rares. 45k no longer feels like I got a good price for mine…

The History of the Rose Shield, Mercenary Shield, Kreal Shield, and Rose Armor

In Beta 5.1 in Tibia's earliest days, before accounts, before even the introduction of Rookguard, when everything east of Tibia City, just newly called Thais, was an empty field ready for exploration. The vast wilderness was a dangerous place and those guilds which did exist were vital to the game as players joined them for protection from PKs and were able to find likeminded adventurers to explore the vast untamed land.

The game developers wanted to recognize those guilds which made a deep impression on the game and awarded each with their own guild hall and rare keys to open them just like the flat system. Guilds in these days came and went, so guilds which endured where a rare sight. Those which had stood against the ravages of time were then given the honor of having their own special item added to the game so they could reward those who greatly championed their causes. Of the dozen or so guilds that existed (check), only three of these received the honor, the Krael guild, the Red Rose, and the Mercenaries.

The Krael shield are an interesting piece of history because the guild disbanded before they were given the hall and item, the Krael Shield. Their shield ended up becoming loot of a new monster now called the Ancient Shield. If you look closely at the shield you can still see that it bares their sigil (pic of sigil). (check this)

The Red Rose received the Red Rose guildhall, which was in Fibula and received two rares, the Rose shield and Rose armor. Rumor has it that 40 shields (2 backpacks) were presented in a secret place, as no PZs existed at the time. Unknown to anyone as it required a pic to enter which had not been used before, but the place is still seldom found. (pic, check)

The Mercenaries received the Mercenary Hall in Fibula and the Mercenary shield. Located in fibula as well, the hall was the largest property in Tibia and only those who were truly worthy were able to claim the honor of the Mercenary shield for themselves.

Players today never appreciated the nuance of yesterday and outcries of unfairness where screamed for many years before CIP decided that the time had come to bring fairness to the modern game. Except for the Rose Shield, all items changed in some way, with the Krael shield having already been added as monster loot already. The rest became quest rewards, with the Rose Armor changed to the Noble Armor, and the Mercenary Shield changed to the Griffin shield. As to why the rose shield was the only one to remain unchanged, it likely was because the Red Rose continued to serve the community through events and roleplay, even long after the world stopped carrying for such things.

As it is true in all cases, the outcry on changing these items was just as harsh. Tibia, it seems, has the least happy players of any game. The first Warlord Sword

The first Warlord sword to enter the game xame in early Tibia. One of the Gods decided to sell the powerful weapon to the highest bidder. The person bid the outrageous price of 300 stacks of diamonds (as gems could be bought and sold for the same price, it was a common money unit as only gold coins existed). The player only enjoyed the sword for a little while, before it was removed along with the depot of the owner by the angry God who had been told of how the diamonds had entered the game. Duping would not be tolerated.

Currently a warlord sword exists in game but no details on it are known…
The Demon Powered Shield

Back when the graphics where less pleasant to look at, during the days were POH received the new and fearsome Giant Spider, a powerful shield entered the game illegally. This purple monstrosity was known as the Demon powered shield and along with the ungodly defense of 50, it had an attack power of 5! Interestingly enough this was not the first time a shield would have attack power as the Mastermind shield some time before had briefly had an attack of 5 before it proved too broken to continue development and was changed.

Dwarven Shield's New Groove

Added to the game along with the dwarves in Beta 6, for as long as I can remember the dwarven shield was one of the most worthless items in game. It was heavy and could not be sold to any NPC so it was often discarded like other unsellable items. New players made use of this item, but it was quickly outclassed by other shields for even small amounts of money spent. The shield was semi rare as it only dropped in dwarf guards which spawned in small numbers.

My friend Sir Seggallion, founder of the Order of the Silver Serpent, had tons of these shields saved up. He liked to help new players by giving them some starting equipment and as a result had a gigantic stockpile of these and other newbie items.

When the update ?? came, Sir Seggallion found that a Kazordoon store now exchanged the item for the unbelievable price of 300gp each! This was almost as good as a Hally and he already owned tons. In exuberance he sold 72,000gp worth of these over many trips to the NPC. Other players discovered that this NPC was paying an outrageous amount for the shield and sold theirs as well. The Dwarven prison and throne treasure room, the only places the guards spawned, was packed with players trying to get shields of their own to sell as hundreds of gold for the item was very profitable. The Gods realized that they had made a mistake and changed the NPC price to 100gp the next day, ending the gold rush and restoring the shield back to its status as junk new player equipment. Though the economy has changed greatly over the years so 300gp is no longer game breaking, I still snicker as someone buys my overpriced dwarven shields on the market for 1k. Banors Holiest Armor, Golden Armor

Introduced in Beta 5.1 they were a very rare armor to see. I spoke to someone famous who owned one of these in early Beta 6 after they had been in game for a while and they showed it to me. The graphic was one of the nicest items I had ever seen, and I wanted one for myself though it was too rare to be a practical item to use as equipment. I eventually settled on buying the much cheaper Giant Sword. As to why they were so rare, the armor was not dropped by any Warlocks, as not even Ferumbras had made an appearance, but were dropped rarely by the daemon. As a one of the greatest armors in game they were 3rd down from the top (the E-plate, and Dragon Scale Armor). However, the daemon did not like to give up its prize often, so a knight would expect to move from a Knight Armor worth about 10k then all the way up to a DSM worth 200k, skipping the Golden Armor entirely. When the Warlock was introduced in Demonia the armor was still rare but slowly started to drop, eventually ending up at the price it had been intended as an armor between the K arm and DSM. Though the graphic has changed to something not as special as before, it is still a welcome sight when one of these pops up as loot. Unfortunately, very few creatures drop this nice armor, but I always smile when it does.

The Rise and Fall of the Dragon Scale Mail

This armor has had an interesting run since its introduction in 1999, with the addition of Dragon Lords. These armors where very hard to gain as few DL spawns existed and even fewer people were able to hunt them as players back then were mostly under level 30. The price of these green mails in early 2000 was around 300k a piece as it was the last piece of equipment many could afford to buy as the E-plate sold for over 600k, which was a lot of money to risk on one piece of equipment. I have killed Dragon Lords since they entered the game and killed them very often and to this day, I have only ever looted one DSM from them!

This expensive armor saw a massive price decrease suddenly which was strange. Not long after it was recorded that some players had found a bug were the first Dragon Lord that spawned in POH would drop this. Arieswar and a few others took advantage of the lucrative bug, dropping the price down to 100k. The Gods realized that something was going on as rumors ran faster than characters in those days.

Those who did not report the bug and abused it instead found that their ill-gotten loot was gone along with the rest of their depot and received heavy banishments for their greed. Today this armor is not as great as it once was, but I still enjoy this item, even if I have only ever looted one in the entire 20 plus years I've played this game, even after doing bestiary I have not looted even one!

As an interesting aside, as loot was pre-generated, a dragon who spawned with an item that produced light such as a life crystal, generated light around itself. A Warrior Helmet for 20k?

Before Orc Leaders, before Black Knights, this helmet was a rarity only dropped in Dragons. The helmet was removed as Dragon look and the price began to climb from 5k up to 20k. As there was no Royal Helmet, and the next helmet was the HotS which sold for 100k this helmet rose to meet the demand. With the introduction of the Orc Leader and BK the price fell to more realistic values yet remained high until over saturation finally sunk the price.

When Platinum Amulets had a use

Before Amulets of life, before all the fancy necklaces that grant benefits, before even the full Amulet of Life, this was the best neck piece you could obtain. Giant spiders where the only creatures that dropped these then and it was a rarity. The price of these precious items was in demand with more players entering the game and even with a steady stream of people hunting POH the necklace rose as high as the sky, trading for 20k or more. With the introduction of the amulet of life the price of these crashed as players would rather spend 50k to prevent the loss of a death then 20k for an extra 2 armor. Now a days there are so many choices that these have become a budget option, worth only 2500gp.

Steel Boots in Fire Devils?

Believe it or not, there was a time when owning a pair of steel boots was the ultimate prestige. These boots where so rare that even the greatest knights did not own a pair! There was no fancy behemoths, no silly pirate boots, none of this Boots of Haste or Soft Boots, it was simply you owned a pair of leather boots, the same pair you first found in a troll, or you were very rich and lucky and owned a pair of steel. I bought a pair of these ultra rare boots from Ghaleon for a nice 150k, and I swear they brought me extra luck just for having them on. Arieswar received a pair of these as a reward for turning in the Cyclopsemania sword, but he quickly sold it.

The boots where first dropped very rarely in Fire Devils when they were introduced, which where only found in small numbers in the Desert Dungeon. The dungeon was not very good for experience or loot, so few bothered to hunt for the boots, and they were eventually removed from their loot table. It was not until the Edron update that they returned as a new drop from the Behemoths. Before Rashid these boots sold for next to nothing as every adventurer preferred the fast BOH over the extra armor points, of the Soft Boots which granted more mana and health. Rashid will happily take these off your hands for 30k, making these once again a worthwhile monster drop.

How the Hots and Eplate got Duped

Part one: How it entered

As seen on Taghors history site:

"Ahh i begin to love this site

Long lost people appear to add their comments. A very interesting Comment was made by Karl, a former wizard (That’s what the GMs were called in the old days). And since i think you all should hear about the story of the first Helmet of the Stars, i will add it here:

Hello Tibians and a special “Hello” to Taghor!

Even though I haven’t talked to you in about 5(?) years I hope you remember me.

I stumbled up on Durin (in a bar in Regensburg) some time ago and since then I am back online in Antica from time to time now. I just found this homepage and since you are looking for old stories I might contribute one. I heard you are mostly looking for stories about where the rare items came from so I start with the story where the first Helmet of the Stars came into the game - or better: into the possession of a player.

Before I begin, I have to point out that it was not really the first HOTS that was gotten by a player, but the first that still exists today. There was an update (maybe in 1999? – please correct me if I am wrong) where all now rare items were deleted and the whole setting of the item system was reformed. It was necessary, because it was very easy before to get those items (dragons dropped them all) and every level 5 player already had a full set of the (back then) best items in the game: HOTS, E-plate and a firesword. So to make Tibia more interesting, all these items where replaced by a steel helmet, a regular plate armor (or was it a chain armor?) and a regular sword. From that update onwards, the rare items were hard to come by. Maybe it was not as hard as it is today, but still a lot harder then before.

So when the server came online with the new update, Thais was swarming with people filling the temple right away and giving good old Quentin a shock by the sudden appearance of so many players logging in at his residence. Some were upset by the now lame equipment they were wearing, some were rushing into the depot to check what happened in there. One player run ahead of all others to be the first at the demon to see what treasures he would hide. This was Galadriel, the probably mightiest sorcerer back then. She wouldn’t have had to hurry that much, because there was no one else that was so eager to see the big red one, but still she did. There was only one place in Tibia back then where you could encounter a demon, and that was deep below Thais, south of Mintwallin. It was not longer then 10-15 minutes after the server came online that I got a message from Galadriel: she had defeated the demons and found as a treasure the famous Helmet of the Stars and an enchanted plate armor. She was a bit upset, because she thought it was still to easy to get the nice stuff. What we didn’t know then was that this mighty treasure only spawned once, so it was Galadriel who was the first and only player that had these nice items for some time.

I hope you liked this memory and maybe you can use it for your homepage.

I still got more memories to share, like
- Where to find an E-plate, HOTS, firesword and cyclopmania sword in the alpha version.
- Where to find the first SOVs, after they were introduced to the game.
- Where to find a cyc-sword with the stats 80/60.
- Where to find spell scrolls that taught you spells independent of your profession.
- Finding the first great shield of Tibia.

But since I don’t know if you want to tell some of these things yourself, Taghor, I will stop remembering old times now and let you decide if you are interested in stuff like this at all.

Keep up the good work Taghor, and hopefully we will meet in Antica soon.

Good hunting,
Karl

Karl i can only say i am very interested in this kind of stuff. Please contact me at tibiahistory@gmx.com to talk about it.

So people i am sure you like this kind of memories? If so, leave a comment and encourage Karl to post more. (but then as an Auhtor)

Part two: How it Mass Produced

KrAzY/Villux Batch, was out on their newbie characters looking for high levels to kill with ice rapiers (they where dupers and easily made more of them). Galadriel, holder of the only HoTs and Eplate in game, walked by at x roads. He killed her in a single shot and was surprised at what she droped. They had no idea that she had these spectacular items and promptly began duping them. While other players went to their depots to survay the damage after the great wipe, Galadriel went to the demon spawn and found herself these items. She was disapointed, thinking that these items where still common yet kept their discover to herself, until she heard that they where one of a kind, keeping them even more secretly.

Kensu, who knew the duping technice as ill describe below, made 30-50 of the sets and gave them away to friends who liked to die and lose them. As is always the case with duping bugs (like the recent case at the bk swamp) he got lazy with his duping practices, and stopped using nubie characters and began using his own main to duplicate. This bug was discovered by Kensu and Aureus, and was abused by Kensu heavily resulting in his deletion. Aureus of course reported the duping bug and it was eventualy repaired (though the damage had already been done). The duping phenominon of the 99's and 00's did not end with this glitches' removal as other people where secretly abusing duping bugs at the time.

To dupe back then using the inventory method, you put a fishing rod on the ground and right clicked on it, then stepped on the rod and clicked it above your head. A single window would open like a backpack in the consol, the graphic looked like the old blond head, and it had the grey and red up and down arrows, a crosshair marking, red outline box as a target (the old targeting system), and a full red box like when you attacked something. Each of the inventory spots had an item in it, the items you had in your backpack. You just took the items out of the wierd inventory and put them on the ground, logged off and back on again and youd have your full inventory back plus your items on the ground.

The Introduction of the Yellow Spell Wand and Demon Set

Arieswar, Lightbringer, and Flamehead where the first to enter the old demon room in Mintwallen after one of the early updates. Arieswar was scared becuase of the large number of demons inside the room, but together they lured them away and got to the chest on the far size. Underneith/inside it was 2 demon sets, a one of a kind Yellow spell wand and a sword of valor. The wand went to Lightbringer, the sword of valor to Arieswar, and Flamehead took one of the demon sets. The second demon set was devided between Arieswar and Lightbringer, LB gaining the legs and Arieswar keeping the armor which he gave to Lady Rebel and who still has it to this day.