v1.7.0 is live: the Devil Square returns, @vend stalls and Autopilot, a brand new first hour

v1.7.0 is our biggest update yet: well over a hundred changes since v1.6.0, from a rebuilt Devil Square to a whole new road for new players. Everything is below, grouped so you can find your favourites. No tl;dr, deal with it.

Run the patcher before you log in. The client patch carries the Devil Square and Guild gear art, the Forged Kaho crown looks, the Gold Headgear quests and titles in your Quest and Achievement windows, the fixed item windows and skill tooltips, the Daily Login calendar text, Frost Joke's new jokes, the new soft shadows and the map fixes (Dicastes, Brasilis Dungeon, the Hub pillars). Part of it already arrived in this week's patches. The server works without it, but those things show blank or old until you patch.

Good to know first

Auto Attack pays 75% EXP and 50% drop chances. This week's hotfix had it at full EXP and drops; before that it paid half of each. Fighting by hand now earns more than @ac, which is the point: playing should pay best. Auto Attack still pays no monster zeny and rolls no Random Options.
Potions heal by percent. Red, Orange, Yellow and White Potions heal the larger of their usual amount or 2% / 4% / 7% / 12% of your Max HP, and the Blue Potion the larger of its usual amount or 25% of your Max SP, so potions stay worth drinking at any level. The five, plus the Condensed White Potion, share one 1 second cooldown, so each second you pick HP or SP. Below about 2,500 Max HP the usual amount is still the bigger one, so a new character heals as before.
Vending is tax-free. A vendor keeps the whole price, paid in zeny or zeny coins. Selling loot to an NPC is still taxed 10% on a sale of 100,000z or more.
Daily Contracts and the Weekly Bounty Board were rebuilt (details below): they now ask for materials other players farm, and pay base and job EXP as well as zeny.
December Daily Login is ready: 20 days from December 1 to 31, 235 Daily Login Cards, and three winter costumes on days 3, 12 and 20 ([C] Snow Bear Hood, [C] Santa Backpack, [C] Christmas Tree). Tempus keeps the same catalog.

New content

The Devil Square returns

Warden Azrael runs it from the mouth of the banner avenue north-west of Prontera's fountain (prontera 150, 231), with Quartermaster Skrap and his shop at the plaza's west kerb (146, 227). Type @ds to go there. It is a party fight that pushes back: three waves, two lives, and gear you can only earn inside.

When: every day at 15:20 and 21:20 UTC.
Who: base level 150+. Levels 150-254 fight in the Lesser Square, level 255 in the Greater Square, up to 8 heroes in each.
Lives: two. The first death is undone; the second carries you out.
Pay: account-bound Devil Square Medals, 1 / 2 / 6 for waves one to three (9 for a full clear), plus a tradable Devil's Strongbox on the last wave. One run per session for each account and computer, so at most 18 Medals a day.
Skrap's shop: Devil Square Cape 60 Medals (reflects 10% of melee damage, and a 5% chance to reflect a targeted spell) and Devil Square Horns 90 (you never flinch when hit, Max HP -10%), both account-bound and level 150+. Two tradable cards for 150 each: Devil Square Hound Card (weapon: 10% chance a hit drains 5% of its damage as HP and 2% as SP) and Devil Square Warden Card (armor: your casting is not interrupted, cast time +20%; the no-interrupt part does nothing in castles).
Leaving the Square sets you down beside the Warden, away from the busy Kafra corner.

The Gold Headgear ladder

The five Gold Headgear Assistants now share a four-tier ladder paid in farm loot, never zeny: a goal at every stage of the climb and a collection to finish.

Tier 1 (level 1): 100 Jellopy + 40 Sticky Mucus for one of 14 hats (Lazy Smokie, Beanie, Cowboy Hat, Drooping Cat and more).
Tier 2 (level 35): 100 Dokkaebi Horn + 100 Ice Heart for one of 8 (Red Ribbon, Black Cat Ears, Teddybear Hat and more).
Tier 3 (level 55): 40 Crystal Mirror + 15 Witherless Rose + 1 Gold for Helmet of Orc Hero, Angel Wing Ears or Evil Wing Ears.
Tier 4 (level 75): 3 Gold + 30 Witherless Rose for the Crown of Mistress.
Each tier opens as a quest in your Quest window (ALT+U) at its level. Every hat has one card slot and rolls bonus options.
Collect different hats for three titles: Hat Hobbyist (5), Hat Collector (10) and Hat Master (all 26).
The materials are common drops, so buying a stack from a vendor is a fair shortcut.

Kaho Servant crowns, rebuilt

Stage II now takes any 3 of 4 order stacks (Crystal Mirror x40, Ice Cubic x300, Ice Heart x330, Witherless Rose x11) plus boss trophies you pick from a list: 1 for the Horn, 3 for the Black Helm, 3 for the Equality Wings. It took 9 MVP trophies before, and an Emperium for the Horn.
Stage III fees: Horn 2,000,000z (was 5,000,000), Black Helm 5,000,000z (was 10,000,000), Equality Wings 5,000,000z (unchanged). The 90,000,000z Horn buyout is unchanged.
The crowns the Servant makes now are Forged copies (Forged Lord Kaho's Horn, Forged Black Helm, Forged Equality Wings): the original's stats and slots with their own midnight steel and gold look. Crowns you already own are unchanged, and anyone mid-chain now needs fewer items. Azazel's Horn recipes and the Forsaken Mystic's costume replicas take either crown.

Daily Contracts and the Weekly Bounty Board

Daily Contracts are three tasks a day, and they now pay base and job EXP (about 40 minutes of your own EXP pace for a full run) as well as zeny.

The tasks: a kill task that changes each day (slay a number of monsters, hunt 40 of one monster, or slay 100 monsters near your level), a hand-in of the day's Essence, and from level 60 a hand-in of one common loot (for example 40 Ice Heart or 4 Crystal Mirror at 60-119).
From level 60 the hunt targets your band: Mavka, Violy, Mini Demon or Archdam at 60-119; Archdam, Dimik or Venatu at 120+.
Zeny for a full run: 30,000 at levels 1-59, 100,000 at 60-119, 150,000 at 120-199 and 105,000 at 200+ (all three bands were 30,000). The extra above 30,000 is paid once a day per account and once a day per computer; your other characters get the standard run, and the Contract Officer tells you when the extra was already taken.
A full or overweight bag no longer eats a contract reward: you are told to make room and nothing is claimed.

The Weekly Bounty Board now posts four bounties for your level band: a Hunt, a Bring, a Gather and a Champion that opens once the other three are done, worth about four hours of EXP across the week. A full week pays 175,000 / 500,000 / 350,000 / 750,000z for levels 1-59 / 60-119 / 120-199 / 200+, where it paid three hunts at 10,000z each. A bounty still open from the old board is reset the first time you open the new one.

The hand-ins are common drops other players farm, so a vendor stack is a fair shortcut, and farmers get new buyers.

@vend stalls

@vend opens a menu. "Open my stall" sells from your inventory with no cart and no Vending skill: up to 12 items, the same rules as any shop, and @autotrade works. Unsold goods come back when it closes.
Pick an NPC look for your stall: try any of 12 on yourself first (Desert Trader, Alchemist Lass, Alchemist Lad, Street Cook, Wok Cook, Goggle Tinkerer, Cowboy Smith, Santa Claus, two Snowmen, Reindeer Captain and Ghost), then confirm. Your stall stands as that character with your name and shop sign, and a click opens your shop. Cosmetic only; it comes off when the stall closes, and an @autotrade stall keeps it.
The stall tells you your items are safe in your cart (ALT+W) when it stages them, when it opens, every 5 seconds while it stands, and when it closes. Close the payment menu any way and nothing moves; cancel the price window and every item goes back to your bag.
New on xilero.net: the Vending page (Database, then Vending). Everything players are selling right now, cheapest first, with price, amount, shop sign, vendor, map and the @warp line to stand next to the shop. Each item shows its 30-day average sale, price range, last sale and a day-by-day list of sales. Search it, or filter to @vend stalls or Vending-skill shops and to zeny or zeny-coin payment; it refreshes about every 30 seconds.
@help has a new Player Market entry explaining @whosells, @buyitems, @vend and @buy, and the Shopping Mall offers a player-shop search.

Autopilot and Autoloot

The @ac menu is now Autopilot. The first page shows your Activity Points, how long they last, how much of your setup is ready and one tip. Set up lists each goal (Stay alive, Fight, Loot, Escape, If I die and more). Starter setup does the basics in one click: sit to rest below 50% HP, escape at 25% HP with a Fly Wing or Teleport, and pick up everything.
Yggdrasil Leaf revive (off by default, in the menu): when Auto Attack dies and no Token of Siegfried saves it, a Leaf from your bag revives you at 50% HP and it keeps going. Start warns you when you carry fewer than 3.
When Auto Attack stops on its own it tells you why in one line (killed by what and where, out of Activity Points, weight, no monster left), and a second death on the same map within the hour adds a warning. The Token of Siegfried and Return to save point now actually work for Auto Attack characters.
Auto Attack tells you when it moves you after 3 targets in a row it could not reach or hurt, and warns you at Start on Ice Dungeon floors 1-3, where Gazeti and Siroma kill a lot of Auto Attack characters.
At the 900 Activity Point cap, the menu warns that tomorrow's grant is lost.
Type @autoloot for the new Autoloot Menu: quick setups (Cards only, Cards + rare, Gear + cards, Everything), drop chance, item types and your item list in one place. Your @alootid list and @aloottype types are now saved on your account, and @aloottype +card works by name.

A real first hour for new players

New castaways get a three-zone island course with scouts and a trader, and a 30 minute +50% Base EXP boost for finishing it. Existing players are unaffected.
The Sailor (and any way off the island) lands you in the Adventurer's Hub (@newb), now one organised hall: Goals, the Registry and the Showroom in rows, and five exhibits round the east table (WoE, PvP, Devil Square, MVP Ladder, Prestige), each with a live read like the next siege or the bosses alive. @newb goals, @newb crew, @newb gallery and @newb exhibits take you straight there.
@next lists your next one to three goals and where to go. Levels 60-149 get a reminder at login.
Party Board in the Hub and @partyboard: say you are hunting (leveling, card farming, an instance, MVPs or just company) or ask to join. Free; posts last 30 minutes.
The new-player alert now welcomes every new character and asks you to say hi, invite them to a party or guild, and point them to @newb. It shows on #livefeed and in our Discord #chat.

New for guilds

Guild Fund NPC (Treasurer Bex, in the Adventurer's Hub): any member can pay zeny for guild EXP, 1 zeny = 50 guild EXP, up to 10,000,000z per guild per day.
The Guild Starter Package staff hand to new guilds now holds 100 account-bound Yggdrasilberry (was 5) and the Guild Leader Package 200 (was 15). Both also rent a Guild Recruit Cap (All Stats +4, healing items +20%) and Guild Banner Cape (Max HP +5%, HP and SP recovery +15%) for 30 days, and the leader gets a stat-less [C] Guild Leader Banner costume. 100 berries weigh 1,500, so make room first.

New cards, items and commands

Conqueror's Card Pack at the WoE Exchange: 40 Victory Coins or 480 Participation Coins, opens into one of the 26 official WoE cards (Despair God Morocc, Morocc's Minion, the Crow, Rekenber, Thanatos and Garment Choir cards and more). Despair God Morocc and Morocc's Minion ship at half their official WoE bonuses.
The Paper Card (weapon): critical damage +20%. The Paper (level 56) drops it at the usual 1.00%.
Mysteltainn Card (shield): damage from Small-size attackers -25%, DEF +1. Mysteltainn drops it at 1.00%.
Love Ring and Ring of Hatred now have one card slot each (rings you own get it after a relog).
@autosong: a Bard, Clown, Dancer or Gypsy in town can repeat their last song or dance until SP runs out, they leave town or die. Works with @afk.
@rates now lists your own bonuses on top of the server rates (Battle Manual, Golden Hour, timed boosts, Baby Shark set, Rookie Fellowship, rate gear) with the EXP and drop totals a kill pays you, and says when a Golden Hour boost is paused.
Every Warper has an MVP Tracker entry that opens the @mvp menu. The @mvp warp (2,000z) now lands on a random spot on the boss's own map instead of the dungeon entrance, and works for mini-bosses and World Bosses too.
A new Kafra in Geffen stands with the Warper, Healer and Job Master: save there to respawn at the town services.
Frost Joke now tells 500 yo mamma jokes set in XileRO (the Sanctum, the Keepers, the Casino, WoE and more).
Four GM-event-only prizes: Welcome Party Popper, Rookie's Lucky Cookie (a gold and green glow for 10 minutes), [C] Welcome Sash and [C] Rookie Wing Cape.
The Level 30, 60 and 99 Poppers now play their confetti, blossom and starburst effects.
Scorpion, Metaller, Andre, Deniro, Piere, Drops, Picky, Super Picky and Ant Egg now spawn on Dimensional Gorge (moc_fild20).
Imp, Necromancer, Ragged Zombie, Kasa and Bow Guardian have their full drop lists back, cards included (1.00%).

Bosses and the Unholy Path

Supports get paid. In a party with a qualifying fighter, if you healed or buffed your party in the last 60 seconds and stand within 14 cells when it falls, you get the same 3 Hearts (and card roll) from an Unholy Path demon, or a World Boss token. You must be playing by hand, on a different computer from the fighter.
A fighter or support who is not paid is now told why: a mail with your share if you dealt at least 0.1% but under the 1% that pays, otherwise one line naming the first rule missed.
When a demon falls the path closes: you get 30 seconds to pick up drops, then return to the Unholy Path warper in Izlude, and the Corruption resets to 0. Hearts are mailed as before; each run costs the 50,000z entry again.
A boss's death heal now counts only the deaths of players who hit it, not bystanders.
Balam, Shax, Raum, Paimon and Apollyon no longer take only 30% of every hit outside a breach.
Moonlight Flower's NineTail adds hit about 30% softer.
MVP Ladder: Biolabs 3F bosses no longer pay the old extra ladder points and Rookie Badges; ladder points come only from the ladder's own rules. A party member who deals no damage no longer earns tokens or points from a support cast alone.

Balance, gear and prices

We know a few of these cost players something, so here they are plainly.

Golden Thief Bug Card now makes you immune to magic (was an 85% block). Only Professor's Soul Siphon and Deadly Projection still land.
Hiding is no longer cancelled when you are hit. Only Detection skills (Ruwach, Sight and the like) or casting Hiding again end it, and Demon, Insect and Boss monsters still see you.
Blue Potion costs 2,000z at Tool Dealers (was 5,000) and sells back for 1,000 (was 2,500).
Condensed White Potion now works exactly like a White Potion: the larger of 325~405 HP or 12% of your Max HP, on the shared 1 second cooldown, so it no longer skips the cooldown. Price (5,000z) and weight (2) unchanged.
HD Elunium, HD Oridecon and their Box(30) can now be traded, mailed and vended. They still cannot be dropped, sold to an NPC or put in guild storage.
Mentor points: a veteran earns at most 3 from the new accounts on one computer, so the Wizard Master costume can't be farmed with alt rookies.

Already live from this week's hotfixes

Treasure Box sells to an NPC for 30,000z (was 150,000); it still costs 300,000z to buy. It was putting far too much zeny into the game, which pushes every price up for everyone. Live since November 3.
Critical hits on Tier III, IV and World bosses and the Unholy Path demons ignore DEF and deal 50% of their damage. Always-crit builds were soloing bosses built for groups; Tier I and II bosses are unchanged, and each guarded boss's @mvp page says so.
Unholy Path demons take full damage like the MVPs: the team-size hide is gone, so a small group no longer sees its hits cut down. The 90M HP, the 20-minute limit and the Demonic Lance are unchanged.
Reset Girl's Switch Build now loads a saved build within your current level's stat points (after a Prestige it gave back the old pool). Characters holding more stat points than their level allows were reset to their level's pool at this maintenance and got a mail: your points are unspent, so place them again in the status window.
Livefeed announcements are off by default; turn them on in @settings. MVP kills stay on their own channel.
Boots of Guidance weigh 60, as the tooltip says (they weighed 350).
Bloody Knight Champion and Monkey Fist respawn at once again. The Wanted MVP weekly roll runs again. Dicastes (dicastes01) no longer draws black. NPC windows no longer go blank after about 30 seconds. An Unholy Path demon kill no longer crashes the server.

Fixes and small changes

Kitty Girl healers heal HP and SP but no longer remove debuffs; if you carry one, they tell you a Panacea cures it. Panacea now also ends Decrease AGI and Bleeding, and its tooltip lists exactly what it cures.
An NPC window you have open no longer snaps shut when a kill, a login reward or a timer fires.
Buying stores refuse a sale that offers more than the store wants, or that costs more than its zeny limit.
Baby Shark Selection Boxes open their picker and grant the chosen item.
A stall in an NPC look shows its shop sign to players already standing next to it.
@vend no longer prints a false SALE LIST. The @afk menu no longer says "World PvP is always on". A jailed player who tries to warp is told to check @jailtime.
A sex change now always lands a Bard or Dancer in the class that matches.
Balam's Soul Mark lands on a lone fighter instead of failing. The 75% Corruption announce reads 75%, not 74%. The Unholy Path hide counts the separate computers that hit it, not idle characters. Orc Lord, Egnigem Cenia and Kiel D-01 no longer repeat their kill line.
Item windows match the server: Crown, Tiara, Small Ribbons, Wedding Veil, Chrystal Pumps, Slipper, Crown of Mistress and Red Ribbon no longer say Female or Male Only (both sexes wear them); the Wedding Ring and Groom Wedding Band say Female Only and Male Only, the Tuxedo Male Only. Godly S-Tier sets show their real DEF (Boots of Guidance 3, Hero Plate 8, Rally Plate 7, Mithril Armor 6, Grand Gaiters 5, Clothes of Brilliance 4). Fallen Bishop Hibram Card says Variable cast time +100%, and Union of the Sun, Moon and Stars no longer promises an HP cost.
Skills: tooltips show the real cast time, after-cast delay and cooldown for 40 skills (Storm Gust, Safety Wall, Soul Strike, the guild skills and more). The skill window uses the tooltip names (Break Fall, Running, Peco Peco Ride), six misspellings are fixed, and Bowling Bash loses its stray 'n's.
Client: soft shadows under every character, NPC and monster; Hub pillars have stone caps; Brasilis Dungeon stalactites (and the same props in Byalan, Izlude and Clock Tower dungeons) lose their black caps; the minimap town guide drops moved services; the Greed, Envy, Faith, Lust and Exile Cards show their own art; the GM staff account shows in yellow; the Daily Login calendar reads "Ends in 31 days"; the Underworld Queen's Crown has its icon.
The Unregistered ID login box tells you to make a Game Account on xilero.net, and /showshop says which state it switched to. The first-login welcome opens once the map has loaded.
The Quest window's Recommended tab describes today's Unholy Path, and the Endless Tower timer quests no longer throw an error. Title messages say to wear titles from the Equipment window's Title tab (ALT+Q). The Welcome to XileRO! achievement no longer shows a loading error.
The wiki now has the real refine fees, says HD ore protects every level up to +10, and describes the Bloody Branch sources, Endless Tower and Auto Loot correctly.

Spotted something odd? Tell us in the bug report forum on Discord, and grab the client from the downloads page.

See you in XileRO, and good luck out there, n00bs and veterans alike!