Howrse Cup

A brand new game is coming. It's called Howrse Cup and the game is currently is beta testing with a selected number of players from around the world. There is already some information on this new game, in the Events forum on International Howrse.

Here at Ultimate Howrse, we will be bringing you all you need to know about this groundbreaking new game which will be launched on 24th July 2012.

The game is a limited time game. That means it will only exist for a few months, before the servers are closed. This is because Howrse Cup is a group competition game where the focus is on competing against other teams of players, rather than spending time breeding and training your horses.

The aim of the game is to be the team who win the world championship in December.

A team has up to 15 members and the top 25 teams who collect the most diamonds in the next few months qualify to compete in the world championship for the Howrse Cup. The players of the team that win the Howrse Cup each get 100 passes and a new and exclusive Divine which they can activate on any server they wish.

To earn diamonds on Howrse Cup your horses need to win races. Every race you enter and place 1st - 4th brings you diamonds. The player and team rankings are all based on how many diamonds you have.

You can also enter challenges against other players to try and win their diamonds off them. For a challenge each player enters 2 horses into a Trot, Gallop, Showjumping, Cross Country and Dressage head-to-head competition. Whoever wins overall gets the diamonds.

However, it's not as easy as it sounds. On Howrse Cup you cannot see the skills or GPs of any of the other players horses - so you have no idea what you're up against!

The game is set up to make it as easy as possible to get your horses trained and start competing. Horses age 4 months instead of 2 and there are no WoYs, there are no rides, no strokes, no turnips and training is done in chunks of 3 hours in a single click.

There are no foal games, your horses age every 6 hours instead of waiting for the update and you can only buy / sell 1 horse a week (unless you have a Unicorn Account, similar to Howrse's Pegasus Account). Another thing is that you can't make your horses immortal!

Horses only start to lose health after the age of 30 and they never lose their skills - so you can keep them alive with Black Orchids if you wish. It takes a while to get used to after playing Howrse but is really simple once you pick it up.

So, an exciting development from Owlient and one we will be following closely. And of course, we will bring all the news and developments as they happen. Watch this space!

UPDATE: A lot of you are asking questions about the Howrse Cup, both here and in the forum on Howrse. Here are answers to some of those:

Q. Can I bring my horses over from Howrse to the Howrse Cup?

A. No. You start from scratch with just one horse

Q. Do you HAVE to buy passes to play?

A. No. But without passes, you have no chance of winning enough races to gain enough diamonds for your team, to climb the rankings.

Q. What is the point of the Howrse Cup.

A. To win. You join (or create) a team of players and compete against other teams to win as many diamonds as possible.  You win diamonds by coming 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th in races. That's it!

Finally, there is a great deal of chatter about the Howrse Cup. It's important to be clear - this is a separate game from Howrse. It runs on it's own server and is a short-term, competitive game. It is designed to be very fast-paced and well, competitive! 

There are no free BM items or passes to help you. The second the game starts, players will be buying dozens, hundreds of passes to race and breed their horses. The game is designed to make breeding and training much faster than on horse - so you can concentrate on entering races. BUT those players who can buy passes and give every BM item to their horses will be the ones who win the most diamonds for their team.

To BLUP a horse on The Howrse Cup only takes about 10-15 minutes! This game is fast and to be competitive you definitely need to buy passes.

If you cannot (or don't wish to) buy passes then of course you can still play. Just don't expect to earn many diamonds and don't feel too sad when more highly skilled horses 'stomp' on yours. It will happen I'm afraid. However you can still enjoy the fun of getting a team together and doing the best you can - passes or no passes.

Well, either way, everyone (over 13 years old - according to the rules from Owlient) will be able to join the Howrse Cup from July 24th. Then you can see for yourselves what the fuss is all about!

UPDATE: The game is now live. Enjoy!

Patsy

Howrse Lottery Summer 2012

The Howrse Summer 2012 Lottery

Yes, it's back - this week Howrse relaunched the Lottery, one of our favourite contests.

We like the lottery as it's something everyone can take part in and win some great prizes.

Until 12th July there are four Lottery draws a day at 00:00, 14:00, 18:00 and 20:00 Game Time.


Here's how to earn tickets:

• You can buy an unlimited amount of tickets per draw with your equus. The price starts at 100e for the first ticket but triples each time, so the second costs 300e, the third 900e etc.
• Your friends can give you tickets (maximum of 5 per draw and each friend can only send you 1 ticket throughout the whole contest).
• Each time you use a pass you will receive 3 tickets (horse purchases do not count).
• You get a ticket each time your horses win a competition (maximum 2 per draw).

There are lots of great prizes available from aging points to equus, diamonds to BM items and even a months Pegasus account subscription. You can also win a horse of the new breed: a Curly. The top prizes are a pack of 3 passes, a Falabella and the new Solar System Divine, Mercury.

Your lottery tickets also allow you to win stars. Each time you collect a certain number of stars you get a gift. So once you've earnt 5 stars, you get 1000 equus, 10 stars gives you 5 aging points etc. all the way up to 3000 stars, which earns you a Falabella.

So get buying those tickets and see what you win!

Lucy

Ultimate Howrse on holiday

Well summer is here and that means that many of us are thinking about our holidays and vacations. And Ultimate Howrse is no different. Patsy and Lucy will both be heading off for a couple of weeks to enjoy the sunshine and recharge their batteries.

Even though we will be working on our tans, it doesn't mean we will be neglecting Ultimate Howrse and all our lovely readers. However, it does mean that we may not be posting as often as usual. We are sure you will allow us a little time off!

We will be keeping an occasional eye on all the goings-on on our beloved Howrse, and will ensure that we keep up to date with any major changes, competitions or new Divines that may appear in the next 14-16 days.

And once we both return from our respective summer breaks, we shall of course, be back working hard to bring you all the latest news, tips, help and advice from your favourite horse game in the World!

Have a great summer,

Patsy & Lucy

The Pinatas

Edit - This is an old post relating to the Piñatas in 2012.

Find out about the 2017 Piñatas here

It's summer and so it's time to welcome the Piñatas to Howrse.

Until June 20th you can try to smash open Piñatas and win gifts by clicking on them. There are 20 Piñatas to crack and if you manage to open them all you win the latest new Solar System Divine - Jupiter.

Your Piñata will open once you have reached the required number of points. You can earn points in the following ways:

• by clicking on your Piñata (at first you can do this every 24 hours but it becomes more often as you complete objectives)
• by asking your friends to click on your Piñata (at first up to 4 friends can help you per day, again this increases as you complete objectives)
• by completing objectives

Each Piñata offers between 1 and 3 additional objectives. If you complete these objectives they allow you to collect extra clicks. For example, on Piñata number 1 the objective is to groom a horse. If you do this you are allowed to click on your Piñata every 12 hours instead of every 24.

These objectives are cumulative. So if you earn extra clicks from friends on one Piñata, it will carry over to the next one to make it easier to open. Be warned though, the number of clicks it takes to open each one increases as you go along. So Piñata number 1 only requires 2 clicks to open but Piñata number 5 takes 16 and so on.

Each Piñata offers gifts once opened ranging from apples and diamonds to Black Market items.

We think this is quite a fun contest. Let us know how you're getting on!

Lucy

Mars - the new Solar System Divine

Mars - the new Divine

As we predicted, Saturn is not the only Divine in the Solar System set of horses - please welcome Mars.

He could be won in the Journey Cards promotion earlier this month.

Mars is 3000 years old and has 1200 skills. You can go on rides on the supernova to increase his skills further and every time you gain 20 skill points he will give you a diamond.

Were you lucky enough to win him? Let us know.

Lucy

The journey scratch cards

Yes, Howrse have bought back one of our favourite contests - the scratch cards - this time under the name of the Journey Cards.

Until 31st May you can collect cards to scratch which offer various gifts and prizes.

You can win cards in the following ways:

• The first time you log in each day
• When your horse wins competitions (2 per day)
• Buying them in the Flash Sales (you can buy a maximum of 1 card in each type of sale every 3 days)
• Exchanging duplicate cards (costs 5 diamonds and you can only exchange 1 per day. However you are guaranteed not to get another duplicate)

Apparently there may be more ways to get cards (possible involving HoPs!) later on in the contest.

The first set of cards are called the Collector Cards. These cards give you prizes as soon as you scratch them - for example equus, BM items, saddlery or even the Divine horse Mars.

The second set of cards are called the Puzzle Cards. There are 7 puzzles to complete and you have to collect all 5 cards from each puzzle before you get your gift. The puzzles are as follows:

• The Desert Puzzle. Prize: Philosopher's Stone
• The Forest Puzzle. Prize: 20,000e
• The Jungle Puzzle. Prize: Morpheus' Arms
• The Meadow Puzzle. Prize: 5 x diamonds
• The Savanna Puzzle. Prize: a Knabstupper (a new breed of horse)
• The Mountain Puzzle. Prize: 5th element
• The Hiking Puzzle. Prize: Poseidon's Pack

If you complete all the puzzles you win a Treasure Chest containing a new wild horse - the Camargue.

You get to your cards by clicking on 'The Cards' link at the top of any page. From that page there is then a link to the Flash Sales.

PLEASE NOTE. To scratch a card you rub your mouse over it. If you are having trouble seeing or scratching your cards it may be that you don't have flash on your computer. For example if you are playing on an iPad or iPhone you will not be able to scratch your cards.

Saturn - the new Divine

Saturn - the new Solar System Divine

Well, we haven't actually had a new Divine on Howrse for a while. Most contests have involved winning one of the new Wild Horses.

So it's time to say hello to Saturn who can be won currently during the painting contest.

Now Saturn is part of the Solar system horses. So I think we can safely assume there will be more Divines named after planets / moons in the future!


Saturn is born aged 3000 with 1200 skills. You can go on rides in the Milky way to increase his skills.
On every full moon (so roughly once a month), Saturn will give his owner 5 diamonds, as long as you have logged in at least once over the past 3 days.

Let us know if you've managed to get yourself a Saturn and what you think of having more Divines on the game.

Lucy