The Titans' Challenge - new Black Market item

Howrse have introduced a new Black Market item called the Titans' Challenge.

It is a bit of a twist on a Horn of Plenty, as the Titans' Challenge allows you to win gifts for your horses but you have to take a bit of a gamble.

The item costs 2 passes. When you purchase it, like a Horn of Plenty, it takes you to a special page where it tells you what you have won. However, with the Titans' Challenge you can decide if you would like to accept the gifts you have been given or go on to the next level to try and win even better prizes.

The gifts can be anything from aging points, ranking points and equus to Black Market items.

Beware though, if you reach a level with no prizes, you automatically lose everything you already have! So decide if you think it's worth the risk or not.

Some people have managed to get all the way to level 8 where you can win a Wild horse of varying breeds.

Until 08.00 Game Time on Monday 24 September you can win a free Titans' Challenge to try for yourself - you just need to win 10 competitions with your horses.

Here's how I got on with mine...

This is the page you get at first...

...I think I'll keep going...

...still going well...

Oh dear!

So good luck - and let us know what you win!

Lucy

Set the horses free!

Well it's a brand new contest on Howrse this week - Set the horses free!

Basically you have to complete a series of levels to earn prizes using your own horses. Each country or level asks you to set free three horses with specific traits. For example, on the first level you have to set free a horse with a black coat. So you have to chose a horse you own with a black coat and set them free.

NOTE: You will not get your horses back. If you chose to set them free then they will disappear from the game.

You can win all sorts of prizes from Black Market items to tack, food and diamonds. The top prize for completing all the levels is Venus - the brand new Solar System Divine.

You can earn Joker horses which automatically fill the place of a horse you don't have. You earn one every day for logging in and can buy more using passes or equus.

So it's a bit of a different contest this time round - have fun but remember not to let your horses go if you don't want to!

Lucy

All new Howrse foal games July 2012

Since the removal of the companions in July 2012, Howrse have made some further changes to foal games.

You can now play games with foals between the ages of 8 months and 1 year and 4 months. Your foal will earn an extra 60 skills for completing games correctly, rather than the 1.2 GP gain (they now get this automatically at birth).

Follow our all new foal games method below CAREFULLY and you will get the full 60 point skill gain for a foal of any breed.

Board your foal in an EC with carrots and 100% clean and fertile meadows. Ensure your foal is put to bed aged 6 months with 100% morale - this is very important! If it's below 10C you will need to put your foal to bed in the box each night.


8 months
Groom/1 Hr Pasture/1 Hr Games/Turnip/Feed 4 Pounds/1 Hr Games/1.5 Hrs Pasture/7 Hrs Games/Stroke/Carrot/Water

10 months
Groom/1 Hr Pasture/1 Hr Games/Turnip/Feed 4 Pounds/8 Hrs Games/Stroke/Carrot/Water

1 year
Groom/1 Hr Pasture/1 Hr Games/Turnip/Feed 4 Pounds/9 Hrs Games/Stroke/Carrot/Water

1 year 2 months
Groom/30 Minutes Pasture/1 Hr Games/Turnip/Feed 4 pounds/10 Hrs Games/Stroke/Carrot/Water

1 year 4 months
Groom/2 Hr Games/Turnip/Feed 14 Pounds/10 Hrs Games/Stroke/Water

Check out our post on Training Methods to find out what to do next.

Lucy

The Companion Journey

The companions are going home!

To celebrate the fact that Howrse are releasing all the companions back into the wild they're holding a contest - called the Companion Journey - from now until 2nd August.

This is very similar to the journey to the North Pole if anyone remembers that from last year.

You can send all the companions you have left in your inventory off on a journey to earn you gifts. Don't worry though, any companions that are already on your horses will stay.

There are 5 natural habitats that give different gifts and are the home of different companions:

• Farm
• Prairie
• Forest
• Savannah
• Divine

You can win lots of things from aging points and equus to BM items and the new Solar System Divine: Neptune. Journeys take a different number of days and different companions depending on the gift. You need to have completed 25 journeys before you can go and get a Neptune.

NOTE: Your companions DO NOT return at the end of their journey - so plan carefully!

You can earn extra companions in various ways:

• by logging in each day (4 per day)
• by winning competitions (max. 4 per day)
• by coming last in competitions (max. 4 per day)
• in the store
• in UFOs
• in the special companion exchange that has been set up
• in HOPs (4 in each)

At the end of the contest any remaining companions will be removed from the game and you will be credited with 100e for each.

As the companions have been removed from the game you can no longer play foal games with your foal. Foals are now automatically given the 1.2 GP gain at birth. You can however now play games to gain extra skills - visit our All new foal games July 2012 post to find out how.

Lucy

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