A challenge is a set of goals that players complete at their own pace. Where an event ranks everyone against each other over a fixed window, a challenge asks each player to reach a target, and everyone who reaches it completes it.

That difference decides which one you want. Ranked competition with a winner is an event. "Kill 500 Atrox" is a challenge.

Progress is tracked automatically from globals, so there is nothing to submit and nothing to verify by hand.

The challenge itself

FieldRequiredNotes
NameyesShown everywhere the challenge appears
DescriptionyesThe full write-up
Short descriptionnoOne line used in listings
RulesnoKept separate so entrants can find them
Start and end datenoLeave both empty for an open-ended challenge
RepeatablenoWhether a player can complete it more than once
Cover and listing imagesnoHeader and card artwork

Dates being optional is the main structural difference from events. A challenge with no dates simply stays open, which suits long-running goals like "reach 1,000 globals" that would be meaningless inside a two-week window.

Completion rewards

Separate from per-tier rewards, a challenge can carry one reward for finishing the whole thing:

FieldNotes
Completion reward descriptionWhat the winner gets
Completion reward valueThe amount
Completion reward typeEC Credits, or manual
Max completion rewardsCaps how many players can be rewarded

Set the cap deliberately. Without one, an easy challenge that stays open indefinitely will keep paying out.

Tiers

Tiers are the steps within a challenge. A challenge can be a single tier, or a ladder where each step is harder than the last.

FieldNotes
NameThe tier label, for example Bronze or Stage 1
DescriptionWhat this tier asks for
Time limit hoursOptional window a player has to complete it once started
RetakeableWhether a player can attempt this tier again
Reward description, value and typePer-tier reward, EC Credits or manual
Max rewardsCaps how many players can be rewarded at this tier
ConditionsWhat actually has to happen

A time limit turns a tier from a long grind into a sprint: "1,000 PED of hunting globals" is a different challenge with a 24 hour limit attached than without one.

Conditions are what get tracked

Each tier holds one or more conditions, matched automatically against incoming globals.

Condition typeCompletes when the player has
CountA number of qualifying globals
TotalValueA cumulative total across qualifying globals
SingleValueOne global at or above a value
UniqueCreaturesGlobals from a number of different creatures
UniqueDepositsGlobals from a number of different deposits
UniqueLandAreasGlobals from a number of different land areas
StreakQualifying globals in an unbroken run

Each condition can be narrowed:

  • Global type, so only hunting or only mining counts
  • Minimum value, filtering out small globals
  • Specific creatures, materials or land areas, chosen from the wiki
  • Required count, the target number
  • Streak max gap hours, for Streak only, defining how long a gap is allowed before the run resets

The unique conditions are the most interesting and the most overlooked. UniqueCreatures with a required count of 25 rewards breadth rather than grinding one spawn, which produces a very different kind of play from Count.

For Streak, the maximum gap matters more than the count. A gap of 1 hour means a continuous session, a gap of 24 hours means playing every day. Set it before you set the target.

Status

StatusMeaning
DraftBeing built, not visible to players
ActiveLive and tracking progress
CompletedFinished
StoppedEnded early

Unlike events, which go live automatically on their start date, a challenge starts as a draft. It has to be moved to active deliberately. This is a good thing: it means you can build the tiers, read them back, and fix the numbers before anyone can start working towards them.

Get the conditions right before going active. Players will already have progress against a tier by the time you notice a target was too low, and lowering the bar after the fact is unfair to whoever already cleared it.

Design notes

Make the first tier reachable in one session. A ladder where nobody clears step one is indistinguishable from a broken challenge.

Prefer a value threshold over raw counts for hunting. Without a minimum value, Count conditions are cleared by whoever kills the most cheap mobs, which is rarely what you meant.

Repeatable plus an uncapped reward is the expensive combination. If a challenge is repeatable, cap the rewards.