Oath of Peak has already made a splash in the Asia-Pacific region, racking up more than half a million downloads and hitting the number one spot on both Google Play and the App Store. Then in North America 500k players …
Oath of Peak has already made a splash in the Asia-Pacific region, racking up more than half a million downloads and hitting the number one spot on both Google Play and the App Store. Then in North America 500k players have signed up for pre-registration, and 200k took part in the open beta.
And now it’s available worldwide, with the exception of East and Southeast Asia.
Published by Yeeha Games and developed by CANGMING NET, Oath of Peak is an ambitious fantasy MMORPG based on The Classic of Mountains and Seas (aka Shan Hai Jing), a cornerstone of China’s literary tradition.
Reassuringly, CANGMING NET has form in this department, creating a string of popular Xianxia games such A Chinese Ghost Story, which has been downloaded 18 million times and counting.
From what we’ve seen, Oath of Peak deserves to enjoy a similar trajectory.
It sees you exploring a vast open-world environment as a Spirit Bender, getting into battles, and interacting with other players.
There’s a ton of single-player and multiplayer content to explore, including guild battles, boss raids, and so on. Plus, as befits a game based on a classic text, there’s a huge story campaign to work your way through.
Not only that, but Oath of Peak has a romantic side, letting you meet and pair up with various characters, getting to know them as you journey through the perilous Omnispirit Continent.
But as far as we’re concerned the standout feature of Oath of Peak is the creature collection. The game sees you sealing, creeding, and nurturing Spirit Beasts – mythical creatures from the annals of Chinese mythology – and training them to fight alongside you.
An Overview of the Spirit Beast System
Those of you who have read Shan Hai Jing will already be familiar with many of these creatures, including Qilin, Baize, Zhulong, and Qiongqi.
Spirit Beasts come in six types: Physical Attack, Physical Defense, Physical Auxiliary, Spell Attack, Spell Defense, and Spell Auxiliary.
They also come in many different intelligence levels, just like actual beasts. Intelligence is the stat that determines a Spirit Beast’s rank, and the animals that sit at the apex of this hierarchy are Primordial Spirit Beasts.
To seal a beast, all you need to do is create a drawing on a special mirror, with the accuracy of your picture and the quality of your mirror determining your likelihood of pulling off a successful capture.
Once a beast is in your stable, you can breed it with others. Their resulting offspring will have a ranking that reflects their parents’ Intelligence and Aptitude stats.
You can enhance your Spirit Beasts’ rank by placing them in Spirit Aggregation, which sacrifices beasts of the same rank. A Genesis Spirit Beast can go all the way up to Epic rank via this process, while others can reach Divine rank.
Whenever you carry out Spirit Aggregation you get back all unused Hidden Shine Pills, Comprehension Stones, and Divine Stone Skills, and there’s a chance that you’ll also gain a random Soul Skill.
A Spirit Beast’s rank, meanwhile, is determined by its Intelligence level, with Common specimens coming in under 100 and Divine beasts achieving 250 or higher. Rare, Epic, and Mythic beasts come in at 100, 140, and 200 respectively.
Then there are a Spirit Beast’s five Aptitude stats, including Strength, Power, Dexterity, Endurance, and Physique. The higher you can crank these Aptitude scores, the better your Spirit Beasts’ base stats will be.
Plus, each Spirit Beast can be Remolded, and its Perception and stats can be boosted.
There’s a lot more to Oath of Peak than its Spirit Beast system, but this brief overview should give you a headstart on one of the game’s most important features.
And now is the best possible time to get started. Oath of Peak is running a special Valentine’s Day event, beginning at 5am on February 14. Among the goodies on offer will be a new Hare costume, available at 30% off for 4 days.
Head to the official Oath of Peak website, Facebook page, and Twitter profile to learn more.
You can download the game for free right now on the App Store and Google Play.
