Hi Steemians!

Today I'm gonna write a feature about this game I am currently playing.

Iris M

Click here to check their website

As it says on it's website banner image, it is an open-world fantasy MMORPG. Initially when they were in their soft launch, the game was called Light of Aiaran (LoA), but when their official release came out, the name was changed to Iris M. Research gives me that it has been around since atleast March of this year, while their last update was just a few days ago: Dec. 15, 2017. Seeing the screenshots of the game before while scouring its forum page, I can tell that they have done several changes to the game, especially to its interface.

I looked up its connection to the MMORPG before, Iris Online, and it seems that they are connected, though story-wise, I am not sure how, since I didn't get to play that game before. All I know is that some of the NPCs are the same, and the base classes are the same as well. They made some slight changes to the races, but I'm not sure if the features of the classes there were carried over to Iris M.

If you want to see the video that it has on the Playstore, here it is:

The game itself is still pretty young, but currently there are a lot of fun things to do in the game apart from the usual stuff you get from MMORPG. As of now, there are 4 servers to choose from, one being a newly made server: Sprite. The other existing servers are: Aiaran, Devan, and Theia. Currently this game is available on both Android and iOS.

I like this game because I have always been fond of MMORPGs. I was very fond of Ragna and Playtrickster before. And this game is a bit similar to Playtrickster in some aspects.

My character KDee916 is on Iris M's Theia server. ^^ We have 5 channels in Theia right now. Before the new server was launched, Theia was shown to be a Busy server. But now, the server is seen as Good just like the other servers.

Let's start by going through their features:

1. New Player Creation
When you first log into the game (after exiting the announcements notice pop-up), the screen will look like this:

Here is where have the option to choose which server to log into. Your characters seem to be locked to the server you initially chose to make them in, so choosing a new server without a character in it will bring you to the new character creation window.

Before it lets you customize your character, you will first have to choose your country.
Then, you will have the option to choose between

• Three Races: Human, Sprite or Demibeast
• Three Classes: Warrior, Mage or Ranger
• Three Hair Styles
• Three Hair Colors

It is to note that each race would of course have their own distinct features. But as for what they are wearing, you can customize that later as you play the game.

I think they are working on a way to change classes in-game, but as of now, there doesn't seem to be a way to change our class, so when you choose one, be sure you're gonna like it! As a way to make it easier, I'm gonna outline some things you can expect from each class:

• Warriors - They are the tank-types. Great HP and Def. They're the type that usually stays alive during boss fights. As for damage-wise, they are good, but you're gonna need to get your hands on better weapons to truly maximize their Atk. Most skills are one enemy only, but they also have one area skill.
• Mages - As I play the game, it became apparent to me that they are the mid-range type of characters. By mid-range, I mean, mid-HP, mid-Def/Magic Def, mid-damage. They're good as support in dungeons because they have area skills that will help you finish dungeons faster, but if you're the one using them, the downside is you can't solo some of the challenge dungeon areas available until you have better gear, but completing quests and farming become easier because of the area skills.
• Rangers - They hit hard, but they can also be easily killed. The good news is, they have this knock-back skill that gives them that chance to hit and hit before they are hit back. Even some Warriors have difficulty defeating them in PvPs. I haven't played Ranger myself, so I'm not sure if they have an area skill.

2. Main View
In game, your top bar will look like this:

Let me explain these briefly..

• From the left, it is your usual status bars, here you will see your race icon (which is the yellow icon that stands for Sprite), your current level, your HP and MP bars, your CP level (combat power), and that icon with a timer below it is the Experience Booster. It cools down for 2 hrs and 30 minutes, and then you can run it again for 30mins for a x3 experience multiplier.
• Below that, you will find the Quests toggle, which will show you your current quests, which you can press, so that you can easily make your character comply with the quest requirements. Most of them are either talking to NPCs, farming, or getting an item.
• Next to it, is the Party toggle, which will show you the people in your party and whether they are online, if you are in one, and will also allow you to leave the current party you are in.
  Since both the Quests and Party are both toggle buttons, you can choose to hide their content.

• In this part, we can see the Notice button, which will bring up the announcements pop-up.
• The Mail Button will allow you check any mail that you may have gotten. Mails that have items expires in the date specified for them. Mails tend to disappear after you've read them.
• Next is Shop, which will open the window where you can buy gems or other packages.
• And next to that is the Menu, which will bring up the Main Menu.
• And then, we have the Map, which you can press so you can check where monsters are and can easily travel to their location with just a tap, or you can use to check the world map itself.
• Below the Menu, is an hourglass icon, which will show you what Events are currently on. Their time schedules are more clearly shown here:
  
• Below the Map, you see the game time, and if you're on Wifi, etc.
• Below that, it shows what Channel you're on, which you can click, in order to change channels. And next to it is the Game Options.
• The main ones are the following:
  
  You can tweak your sounds, and your auto-settings here. Such as at what point you use your auto-potion.

Here, you can tweak your other settings related to the graphics. This will be helpful in reducing too much battery usage and such.

As for your Main Menu, it looks like this:

The buttons here will be discussed in-depth later.

At the bottom of the screen, we will find these buttons:

• From the left, there is the Virtual Joystick, for movement. But you can also click on the screen to move, if you want.
• Below that, which spans almost the entire length, is the Experience Bar. You can see the percentage you are at, and how much experience you are earning at a time, or if you got gold or ailium from fighting.
• In the middle area is for chatting. Clicking it or the button on its left will bring up the Chat window. There are several tabs: All, World, Guild, Party, Whisper, or System.
• Next to the chat is the Auto-Skill button. It can be set to Auto-skill, Auto-attack, or OFF.
• And in the rightmost part, we find the Skills you have set.
• Just above that slightly larger black skill is the button you can use to Change Target.
• Above the skills is the Potions you've set in the Quick Slot. (This is the potion that your auto-potion gets from)
• And next to the Quick Slot is the Luminous button. Clicking it will activate your Luminous.
• Above that is the Google Play Games Options. Not much there other than checking Rankings or Achievements in Google Play Games.

3. Mission
In the Missions tab, you can find the Bestiary, the Quests, and the Achievements.

The Bestiary:

Here you can see what benefits you can get from farming monsters from the specified map area. In the image, these are the monsters for Shabas Snowfield and their corresponding bonuses.

You can get these "Essence" drops by farming the monsters. They will be shown in the form of a drop that looks like a black card.

The idea of the "Essence" is pretty much like collecting monster cards in our games like Ragna, Playtrickster, or this game's predecessor Iris Online.

Quests

The quest window is pretty much where you can find the description for the quests. Personally, I don't think it is used that much.

Achievements

This is where you go to collect achievement rewards, or when you're just checking what things you can do to get an achievement. There are daily achievements, and heroic ones. Heroic achievements usually involve reaching a certain level, etc.

4. Summon
For the Summon tab, we have the Luminous, Wings, Astra and Pets

There are three Luminous forms:

Normally, if you base them on their skills, the Dark Knight is for Rangers, the Frigid Ariel is for Mages, and the Leviathan is for Warriors.
But I have seen some players interchanging their luminous, most probably because one is higher level than the one that fits their character.

As said earlier, this can be activated using your Luminous button in the main screen. Using Luminous gives a good boost to your stats, and adds the Luminous skills to your skillset. It only stays that way for about 30 seconds or 1 minute. I haven't really tried to time it, so I'm not sure. After you return to normal, the Luminous button will be in cooldown.

There is a Dungeon called Ancient God's Altar which you can enter starting lvl 33. This is where you can get Luminous Shards that can be used to possibly upgrade your various Luminous. What Luminous pieces the shards give you is by chance.

Pets
You can get pets starting lvl 25. The first pet you get is a hopper. But after that, you can summon pets in three ways:

The border colors of the pet speak of their rarity, which is similar to the one for items.

To raise the level of your pet, you can combine them with other pets. This will cost you money, but if you have a strong base pet with good stats, it is worth it.

Currently, this is my pet:

The stats of my Ae'okin are really fit for a mage like me! :3

5. Costumes
Apart from your gear, there is an option to wear costumes. You can get costumes via crafting, buying with gems or during events.

Right now, as you can see, my character is wearing the Santa costume set that is available for this holiday season. You can get them via exchanging the christmas balls you get from Dungeons with NPC Yata in the town area. He will give you a christmas box for them, and the box has the chance of giving you the costume, or potions, or transfer stones, etc. So far, I have completed the set, with even some duplicates. And I also keep getting Grade A potions. XD

You can also choose to hide your costumes, or your helmet by just clicking the check next to them:


In the images, you can see that my helmet is hidden, but all the rest of my costumes are visible. I like my blue hair so I didn't want to be wearing any helmet or hat. :3

Buying costumes from the Shop are pretty expensive, and since they are in boxes, there is also the chance of getting a costume you do not want. I prefer to craft the one I want. But right now, I still lack 12 white threads. XD

You can also add scrolls to your costumes via the Soul Slots option in the Enchant tab. Only three scrolls at most per costume, and you cannot add a duplicate type of scroll to costumes. ( If a costume already has an HP scroll, you cannot add another HP scroll to it.) Scrolls can be extracted from unique items of Lvl 30 or above via the item window or via the Soul Extraction option in the Enchant tab.

6. Items
Armors, Weapons and Accessories have a rarity value.
The gray bordered ones are common.
Blue Borders are Rare. (1 additional stat)
Pink Borders are Unique. (2 additional stats)
Orange Borders are Legendary. (3 additional stats)

And beyond that, you have also rarity levels starting from E. I'm not sure of the max rarity level. I haven't ever seen anyone get an A or an S. But I'm sure it's either of those.

The additional stats of an item can be changed by using Enchant, which is only available after you reach level 36. You need an Illusion Stone before you can use enchant. Illusion Stones are available from NPC Cuze's shop, bought by 20 Ancient Coins. Take note that enchanting will give you another set of random additional stats, so you might want to reserve those stones for higher level of items whose stats aren't to your liking.

The Forge in your main menu is also all for your items.
In the forge, you can:

• Enhance - Increases the level of your items. Enhancing successfully once will add a +1 to your item. Enhancing becomes more difficult as your item level increases. This process uses Luminites. Higher level of o enhancing will also begin to use the higher level luminites.
• Dismantle - This process turns selected armors/weapons/accessories into luminites. One luminite per item.
• Transfer - This process transfers your enhancement level from one item to another. You do this by placing the base item into the "Material", and the final item into the "Transfer". Note that the Material item will disappear after transfer, and that you need some transfer stones to make this possible.
• Gem Slot - you can add gems to your weapons/armors/accessories to boost their stats. it can be either of the following types: HP, Mana, Def, Atk, Magic Atk, Magic Def.

7. Skills
The Skills option is where you can level up your skills using skill points, which you can get from main quests or doing some dungeons. Take note that not all dungeons give them, and what you get is actually minimal. It's actually very difficult to get skill points in this game. :<

The image above is for the skillset of Mages.

8. Guilds
There are many things you can do in guilds.
Basically to level up a guild, you need to do guild contributions, which are available as 50 points free per day. You need to spend for other amounts.
When the guild you are part of is already of adequate level, you can activate bonuses from it, like +2 Physical DP for all members.
Otherwise, you can also summon guild bosses and battle them with the others in your guild. Or you can also do guild wars or the newly updated guild battles.

I quit the guild that some people added me in because there wasn't much movement in the guild, and when I summoned a boss, only one came to join me. :< I'd rather join a more active guild much later or make my own, which costs 1,000,000 gold.

9. Kingdom
You can have a personal mini-kingdom once you reach lvl 15. This kingdom produces all kinds of resources for a certain timeframe, and the infrastructures can also be leveled up depending on your own level.

The resources it produces are:

• Eveh Lumber
• Skill Points
• Gem Shards
• Ancient Coins
• Gold
• Small Feathers (you need 8 of these to craft one feather in the Crafting option under Workshop)
• Duranium
• Neveh Spice
• Luminite Fragments (can be used to make Quality Luminites)
• Emperor Salmon

A good number of these can be used as gifts to NPCs so that you can easily level up their Astra card. Astra cards can be helpful in your journey, and their rate of activation depends on their card level. The first Astra card you will get is from Cuze, which will be given to you. All the other Astra cards are things you have to work for yourselves either by Bonding with them which is either interacting once a day, or gifting. Personally I use Yata's card which is Instant HP recovery 25%, and Cuze's Instant MP recovery 25%, and Karol's which is EXP gain + 100%.

10. Dungeons and Arena
There are two types of dungeons.
One is under the Dungeons tab:
These are dungeons that have the chance to drop unique or legendary items, and can be challenged either by a party or by yourself.

(The dungeons in this image are Elite ones.)
The first dungeon area here is for soloing. The second (Elite) and third (Chaos) are party dungeons.

Elite dungeons require 10 energy to enter, and each day you regen 20, and are given another 10 energy as an achievement for completing two Elite Dungeons. As for the Chaos, you need a Shadow token. The only way to get these are via buying with mileage points in the shop, or via the Mission Temple in the_Challenges_ tab. It is recommended that you make sure you have atleast 1 Shadow token left over for the next day, since the achievements also give you 1 Shadow token for completing Chaos Dungeon once. The energy or token do not get deducted from you unless you have actually successfully completed the dungeon, so you can try them multiple times if you lose (due to bad team-up).

Each dungeon has its recommended number of members. In fact, you cannot enter the Chaos dungeon unless there are 4 of you. You can enter them as a party via Random Matching or Invite. There are many people doing Random matching at a time, so it's not that difficult to find party members, but it is much easier if you know the people you are playing with, since you can coordinate.

Also you might notice in the world chat that many people are saying "c30" or "c40". Those actually mean Chaos lvl 30 dungeon or Chaos lvl 40 dungeon, in case you might be wondering.

The other Dungeons that I was talking about are in the Challenges tab:

There are several dungeon types here:

• Abyssal Tower - This dungeon goes on and on with increasing enemy lvl of waves until one of you dies. After every several waves, there will be one wave of non-aggre monsters who each give x3 Grade A potion when defeated. It is always entered as a party. It can only be entered once a day.
• Ancient God's Altar - This is the dungeon where you can get Luminous shards for leveling up your luminous. Enemy waves become stronger with each round. Take note that only the bigger monsters give Luminous shards: the ones that often come in three. It can only be entered once a day.
• Gem Dungeon - Dungeon where you ca obtain gems or gemstones randomly from lvl 1 to 4. It can be entered once a day.
• Gold Dungeon - Dungeon that gives around 500k or more in total, including the ones in the random boxes. Can only be entered once a day.
• EXP Dungeon - Dungeon that gives lots of EXP. The primary being based on your current lvl, and then additional ones from random boxes. I got more than 1 million from the boxes before. I'm not sure if that's around the max of the random boxes. Can only be entered once a day.
• Labyrinth of ordeal - Dungeon that gives pet tickets upon completion. It is a set of 5 boss monsters. It is always the same set. Can be entered several times, but can only claim the reward once.
• Mission Temple - This is the dungeon that gives out Shadow Tokens and Shiny Feathers. A set of randomly generated missions, even the points they give are random. Getting 20 points in total will net you the reward. The missions are not successive in one dungeon area. After defeating one mission, you will have to exit dungeon to enter a new mission. Acquired points are reset to zero by the next day.
• World Boss - This dungeon is only open twice a day at 12:30 and 21:00 GMT+7.
• Battle Royale - This seems to be a newly updated dungeon where you face off against 50 players all over the world where only the last survivor gets the reward. The battle begins once it is full or after 5 mins of registration. Open everyday 19:00 GMT+7.
• Skirmish - You go in teams and try to attain the set number of points. Open everyday at 13:00, 20:00, and 22:00 GMT+7.
• Colosseum - A real-time 3:3 tournament held everyday at 20:30 GMT+7
  There are more dungeons where you can get items in the East Underground which are:
• Luminite Dungeon
• Advanced Luminite Dungeon
• Transfer Stone Dungeon

---Some of these dungeons scale according to your own level.

The Arena on the other hand is where you go 1:1 with other players. you actually can choose from among five:

Then the battle will commence. You can do nothing during the battle and just wait for you to win or lose. You get points and money either way.
The Arena is open Monday-Sunday from 00:00~23:00 GMT+7.

11. Special Boss
During my time in the game, it has been apparent to me that everytime the game time strikes xx:00, Kamaram of Destruction, a special boss, appears in the area of the Snowcrabs in the Shabas Snowfields.
In Theia, players would typically start from Channel 5 working their way to Channel 1 to defeat this boss, as it gives either rare or unique lvl 40 items. In this area when the players are there, you will experience quite lag, and a race for time to atleast get some damage on the boss. The number of drops you get seems to tie in with the damage you've dealt.
Here is a brief idea of what your screen will look like:

This is the sea of people waiting for the clock to strike xx:00 at channel 5.

This is an actual snap of a fight against the Boss.

And here is when I jumped ahead to Channel 1 and found that there were few players there, giving you a chance to hit the boss cleanly.

I am inclined to think that every map has a designated special boss, but I don't know what time they come in. I just seem to recall seeing someone announce that there was also one in the Felled Woods (the map before Shabas Snowfield).

12. Exchange
Sadly, in this game, there is no option to trade items player to player. And you also cannot drop your items for others to pick up. Any trading or the like has to go through the exchange. And only Legendary items can be sold in the exchange. And the items will cost gems. The players are free to choose how much they want to price their items.

In the world chat, sometimes you will see people offering their items to people who might be interested in them.

---

* All images/videos were either from the website, the playstore or snapshots of my in-game playing

---

All in all, it seems like a fun game. I, myself, enjoy it a lot, since I love these genres and they have a lot of different things to do in the game. It's just that, leveling here is pretty difficult once you reach around 30+. And since the game is fairly new, there is definitely still a lot of things to improve.

I really do hope they add a better trading option. And I also think that they will be adding class advancements sometime in the run of the game. That is if they keep developing it. Hoping!(Fingers-crossed) And the skills, oh please, earning skill points is. so. hard. please dev, please. add a dungeon for it or something! XD

Their auto-battle makes things a lot easier for grinding, as you can just leave your phone on while working on other stuff. I guess that's their answer to the leveling problem. Right now, they seem to have a level cap at 69, but you will continue to earn experience when you reach that point (I am surely still far from it), and when the level cap is increased, you will just be automatically leveled up.

Soloing is good in the game, and since there is random-matching, it isn't much of a handicap either. But I think playing in groups makes it all the more fun, raiding dungeons, or doing guild bosses and wars. I'm sure that as long as the moderators stay in touch with the community, and as long as the developers are also trying their best to improve the game, surely this would stick around. ^^

That's all for my game feature!

I hope you had fun reading (as much fun as I did while writing) and maybe, just maybe, get enticed into playing as well. :3

If you do, see you around in the game! You can add me: KDee916 on Theia. ^^

Good day, Steemians!