New Combo Base!

Just like the past two years, we feel it's best to kick off the news with this!

Rime is a Black Countershaded Medium Special base (tied to Blue skin) and requires the following factor bases in order to be bred!
Factor 1 - Orchid, Rime
Factor 2 - Arctic, Aufeis, Frostbitten, Glacial, Hoarfrost, Ice, Snowflake

Remember that with these types of combo bases, you must breed a base within the Factor 1 list to a base within the Factor 2 list!

The Rime combo base requires Wet Season. Just like Cloudburst, it can only have a chance of passing down onto cubs if two factors are bred together during Wet Season! There's another catch... it also requires day time! Similar to Hoarfrost, this is a very difficult base to produce, but it is possible year-round. There might be a little boost this month...

Winter Breeding Challenge!

This challenge is repeated from last year, so if you already know it from 2019 and 2020, you can skip to the new rewards! :D

All the albino love this month has inspired us to create a community challenge with extra personal goals to achieve!

We give you the Albino Cub Challenge!

Community Goal: breed 2000 total Albino cubs!
Personal Goal: breed 3 Albino cubs!

The challenge begins at midnight on December 12th (12am Lioden time)!

Where can I access the information about this challenge?
The Gorilla Enclave will provide all information, as well as an extra small area on the sidebar panel on your layout! We also have an Albino Cub Challenge wiki page dedicated to this challenge.

What are the rewards?
Community Rewards: 5% chance for a Snowflake-based cub to be born to Albino x any parent and 5% chance for a Hoarfrost-based cub to be born to Interstellar x any parent for the rest of December when the 2000 Albino cub goal is hit! The Gorilla Enclave will also ask for more Albino-based cubs for their quests.
NEW: 5% chance for a Rime-based cub to be born to Orchid x any parent for the rest of December when the 2000 Albino cub goal is hit!
Personal Rewards: A special title ("Special Snowflake"), the "Albino Cub Challenge" achievement, a background based on your king's karma at the time of completing the 3 Albino cub goal, and a Hoarfrost Markings applicator!
NEW: Another new applicator - Rime Markings! It's a personal reward that isn't tied to karma. The applicator will let you apply one of four random Rime markings to your chosen lion. The shapes are Feline (4), Marbled Undercoat, Points, and Reverse Vitiligo Mash!

What is the time limit?
The challenge and its in-game rewards end on December 31st 11:59pm Lioden time.
The sooner you guys complete the goal, the longer you can enjoy the in-game rewards, as the 5% chance for a combo-based cub to be born to Albino, Interstellar, and Orchid + any parent pairing expires on December 31st 11:59pm Lioden time! This means that the only way to breed the Snowflake, Hoarfrost, and Rime bases after the challenge ends is to breed their factor bases together during wet season, or additionally, day or night time.

Of course, the achievement and title you receive are permanent! The background items you receive will also last until their uses are gone, as with all other backgrounds and decors.

Will this repeat next year?
We weren't sure in 2019, but now that it's repeated in 2020 and now 2021, we think this might be an annual occurrence, yes! We will add or replace rewards, change combo bases, etc., but we think the Snowflake base will always be its core, and we may add something fresh as an extra every year.

What are the background rewards?
You will only receive one background for completing the personal goal, and the background you receive depends upon the karma your king has at the time that you claim your rewards!

Challenge: Winter [Cub Cave] Evil Karma Reward

Challenge: Winter [Pelt Cave] Neutral Karma Reward

Challenge: Winter [Fur Cave] Good Karma Reward

What are the karma thresholds for receiving backgrounds?
The karma thresholds are the same for these backgrounds as they are for your eyes changing in Explore.

Evil: -400 or lower karma
Neutral: between -399 and +399 karma
Good: +400 or higher karma

Event Content Update!

Advent Calendar Items

The new set for 2021 and 2023 has been added and will be unlocked for you all starting on December 22nd 12am Lioden time! The items will unlock in the Item Catalogue and Lion Wardrobe minutes before midnight on December 21st.

Mantis Shop Items

Eight new items have been added to various tiers of the Mantis Shop!

Snow-Covered Log Tier 2	Jingle Bells Ear Wrap Tier 2	Ragdoll Queen Tier 2	Playful Ragdoll Cat Tier 2
Ragdoll Kittens Tier 2	Ice Ram Horns [Smooth] Tier 3	Ice Ram Horns [Icicle] Tier 3	Pseudomelanistic Zebra Tier 3

Wallowing Pit Items

Three new items have been added to Tier 2 of the Wallowing Pit!

Mukota Pig

Wallow Clutter

Muddy Pebbles

New Event Encounters

Seven new encounters have been added to Explore, unlocked by Tier 2 and Tier 3 of the Mantis Shop!

Ragdoll Markings

The Ragdoll base, mane colour, and markings have been fully uploaded! Upon using the Ragdoll Markings applicator, you can receive one of the following four markings.
Ragdoll English Spots
Ragdoll Indri
Ragdoll Quagga
Ragdoll Siamese

Development Update Content!

Background Artwork Redo

You, the players, voted that you'd like to see our oldest (almost a decade old!) backgrounds redone with our new style by our very talented artist! You decided that these artworks deserved to be redrawn. This means that the following backgrounds now have new artwork!
Waterhole
Marshland
Savanna
Dry River
Elephant Graveyard
Green Savanna

Here are examples of the changes!

If you still see the old artwork, all you need to do is clear your browser's cache!

New Craftable Content

A handful of new backgrounds and decors, craftable year-round, have been added today!

Claw Extensions [Red] Beetle: Eupatorus birmanicus - 2x [Red], 2x [Crimson]	Claw Extensions [Iridescent] Beetle: Eupatorus birmanicus - 2x [Black], 2x [Opalescent]	Claw Extensions [White] Beetle: Eupatorus birmanicus - 2x [Black], 2x [Pastel]	Claw Extensions [Dark] Beetle: Eupatorus birmanicus - 2x [Black], 2x [Dark]
Valley of the Moon 20x Rock, 30x Large Rock, 20x Pet Rock	Tiger Bush 30x Rock, 30x Underbrush, 10x Large Leaves	Shere Hills 5x Large Leaves, 30x Large Rocks, 10x Underbrush	Shai Hills 10x Large Leaves, 30x Large Rocks, 5x Underbrush
Mount Cameroon 20x Large Leaves, 20x Large Rocks, 5x Underbrush	Marakele Park 5x Large Leaves, 20x Large Rocks, 20x Underbrush

Fresh Battle Beetle Colours!

We asked the community if you would be interested in new beetle colours for existing species, so here goes our first batch!

Acrocinus longimanus
Uncommon: Purple
Rare: Melanistic


Adetomyrma venatrix
Rare: Piebald
Rare: Iridescent


Anoplocnemis curvipes
Uncommon: Bark
Rare: Iridescent


Augosoma centaurus
Uncommon: Blue
Rare: Iridescent


Basicryptus costalis
Uncommon: Green
Rare: Festive


Bolbaffer princeps
Rare: Piebald
Rare: Iridescent


Calidea dregii
Uncommon: Emerald
Rare: Albino


Cerambyx cerdo
Uncommon: Iron
Rare: Iridescent


Chelorrhina kraatzi
Uncommon: Golden
Rare: Frost


Chiasognathus grantii
Uncommon: Iron
Rare: Albino


Colophon primosi
Uncommon: Rust
Rare: Albino

Battle Beetle Catalogue?!

You can now collect your battle beetles in a tidy little collection book! Beetles that have reached adulthood can be added to your collection directly from their page (larvae cannot be added to collections). As part of this update, beetle pages have received a minor makeover.

If a beetle is able to be added to your collection, you will see a shiny gold button displayed in the "Get Rid of Beetle" section of their page. Keep in mind that this is permanent, and will result in the death of your beetle. Since this record is stored away, you will not receive any death token items. Adding a beetle to your collection will display the beetle's full artwork and remove the greyscale filter shown above. To accompany this update, a new achievement category, "Beetles", has been added, in addition to a handful of collection-based achievements.

Over the coming weeks, beetle data will be updated with descriptions, including where and when they can be found!

As this is a brand new feature, we're figuring out the best placement for the battle beetle book. To access your battle beetle book in the meantime, please use the following URL: https://www.lioden.com/beetle-book.php

You can share access to your own battle beetle book with other players by adding your player ID to the end of that URL, an example being https://www.lioden.com/beetle-book.php?id=3!

When viewing any battle beetle book, you can immediately tell the rarity of a beetle colour based on the coloured ring around the beetle. Grey is Common, Green is Uncommon, and Blue is Rare. You can see this information in tooltips when hovering over the beetle icons within a book, as well!

Raffle Lioness

Congrats Calla (#65927)! You have won last week's Bandit lady, woo!
A new Udara lady with Chert Indri (NEW!), Feline 5 Fiery (NEW!), and the fourth Harenna Forest background is up for impressing in the Special Lioness area linked here!

Marking Note: Feline 5 Lilac and Quartz Rims are now possible to apply via RMAs/Total Shuffle!

Tags!
Shad has added 12 new tags this month in the Breeding, Event ➜ December, Miscellaneous ➜ Landscapes, Miscellaneous ➜ Lions, and Miscellaneous ➜ NPCs categories!

Poll Results - Thank you for voting! It seems many of you are yearning for more stripes. We'll see what we can do!

NEW POLL - For January's event, would you prefer more guaranteed storyline decors as rewards, or more event shop decors? Let us know in this week's poll!

Next Update: Community Update - December 17th!
Next Development Update: January 14th!!



Where's the official raffle and Friday comic?
Community raffles and Friday doodles are only released on community updates. This is a development update, so no raffle or doodle will be released this week, sorry!