Faction Warfare in Albion Online: how to join, points and what to expect

What Faction Warfare is

Faction Warfare is the large-scale conflict between Albion's royal cities, in the open world of the Royal Continent. You enlist in a faction, fight for its territory and earn points that raise your standing and unlock rewards.

It is a good way into PvP: it accepts solo players, with no guild, and many of the zones are low risk.

The factions

Each royal city has its own faction: Bridgewatch, Fort Sterling, Lymhurst, Martlock and Thetford. Caerleon is different: it is more a band of mercenaries than an army.

You can change faction by traveling to another city and enlisting there. When you switch, part of your standing moves to the new faction, and the rest is lost.

How to join

1. Unlock the Expert Adventurer node on the Destiny Board.
2. Go to the Commander of the city of the faction you chose and enlist. It is free.
3. Turn on faction flagging.

To get the most out of it, bring gear with about 700 item power. Factions with few recruits give noticeably more points, so check which one is low before choosing.

Flagging and PvP

With flagging on, you can fight members of rival factions in all zones of the Royal Continent, and they can attack you anywhere too, even in blue and yellow zones. PvP against rival factions ends in a knockdown in blue and yellow zones, and in death (losing your gear) in red zones.

That is why yellow zones are the place to start: you learn without losing gear.

Some zones remove your flag automatically: black zones, Hellgates, the Arena, Expeditions and the Mists. While flagged you cannot enter other factions' cities, the starter towns or the Roads of Avalon. When you are downed, choosing to respawn at your faction city keeps the flag; any other option removes it. Flagged players also earn extra fame, silver and loot (5%, 10% or 15% fame) the farther they are from the main city.

Points, standing and rewards

Every activity you contribute to your faction gives Faction Points, which you spend in the faction store, and faction standing, which raises your rank. You earn points by killing mobs, gathering, fishing, defeating rival faction players (in red zones they are worth triple the yellow ones), capturing outposts and regions, and faction defense. Points and standing are not lost when you die.

There are 21 ranks. Standing raises the points you earn: +5% at rank 4 (15,000 standing), +10% at 7 (42,000), +15% at 10 (120,000), +20% at 13 (330,000), +25% at 17 (1,400,000) and +30% at 21 (6,000,000). From rank 17 you lose part of your standing to prestige upkeep (5% of what you have above 1,400,000). Factions with few recruits give an extra points bonus, and Caerleon has no such bonus.

Rewards:

• Daily reward: reaching 1,250, 2,500 and 5,000 points in a day earns the same amount in standing.
• Weekly report: gives points according to last week's activity (points, outposts and regions captured, players downed and other factors, including Premium).
• Monthly campaign: reaching 25,000, 50,000, 75,000 and 100,000 points unlocks the Iron, Bronze, Silver and Gold chests. You can progress without Premium, but you can only claim the chests with Premium. Rewards release week by week.
• Faction defense: every 15 minutes it shares points among those who recently captured an outpost or region or defeated a rival faction player. Premium gives 50% more.

The war map: provinces and supplies

The war map is divided into provinces, each with a fortress. You can only complete objectives in provinces your faction is attacking or defending, and every activity you complete generates supplies for your faction. Outposts generate supplies over time while you hold them.

At the daily siege times, the faction with the most supplies in a province acts: defenders repel the attack and invade their neighbor, and attackers declare a siege on the fortress. To control a province, a faction needs a connected chain of provinces back to its main city. If the chain breaks, the province becomes cut off and any neighboring faction can take it.

Besieging a fortress

During a siege, Siege Hammers are used to repair or destroy walls and doors. You can buy them on the Market or craft them at the Toolmaker. The attacker wins by capturing the point at the fortress center. The defender wins by holding out until the defensive progress bar fills.

Weapons Caches appear during the fight: capturing them gives your allies powerful bonuses and moves the defensive progress (it shortens the time for defenders, and gives attackers extra time).

Caerleon: the mercenaries

Whoever fights for Caerleon can attack the other factions and also other Caerleon players. It sits in the center of the Royal Continent and declares attacks on red zone provinces, to raid them. In small groups, Caerleon players get a larger share of the rewards when capturing outposts.

Bandit Assaults

At random moments of the day, the red regions around Caerleon are overrun by bandits and all outposts are taken. During the Bandit Assault, any player can capture outposts in any red region, whether or not their faction is attacking or defending it.

Factions compete for supplies for a limited time and earn rewards according to their ranking. At the end, two fortresses become vulnerable and a valuable chest can be claimed by any faction.

What build to bring

In a faction group, a balanced composition is one healer, one tank and three to five damage dealers, with sustain and burst, and escape tools. To learn, use cheap gear, such as 4.1 or 4.2, which costs little to repair and replace.

On Builds Forge, check the Meta Builds for Small-scale and Mid-size group, which are the typical sizes of these fights.

Step by step to get started

1. Unlock the Expert Adventurer node.
2. Pick a faction with few recruits and enlist with the Commander.
3. Equip a cheap set.
4. Stay in yellow zones at first, where PvP ends in a knockdown.
5. Use the war map to see the provinces your faction is attacking or defending.
6. Only go to red zones with a group and with gear you can lose.

Common mistakes

• Going into a red zone with flagging on and expensive gear.
• Forgetting that objectives only count in provinces your faction is attacking or defending.
• Choosing the faction just by city, without checking how many recruits it has.
• Switching faction many times and losing standing.
• Forgetting that the monthly campaign chests can only be claimed with Premium.

What to check in the game

Faction Warfare has been changed a lot in recent updates, so check:

• The requirements to enlist.
• The PvP rules of each zone color.
• The store and monthly campaign rewards.
• How sieges and Bandit Assaults work right now.