The Merman Attacks In Tree Of Life

Following a short "pretest preview" release phase, Tree of Life's latest update—The Merman Attacks—has gone live for everyone. Merman NPCs will now attack your guild hall if you have one. Once per day, they will signal their attack by placing a flag—that you can use to get information about the attack or pay tribute to your attackers, potentially getting "rewards" in return—in front of your base. Up to three flags can be placed at a time. When you are ready to fight back, you can begin the attack. These attacks last for around 40 minutes and are said to be "extremely hard to block [...] by using only towers and traps."

To win, you simply have to keep all of boxes in your camp containing "Victory Points items" from being stolen. The mermen will grant you treasure boxes "filled with useful items" if you succeed. If you are defeated, however, they will destroy your guild hall and steal all remaining boxes containing VP items. The VP items that you keep from being stolen can be used to level your guild, change guild emblem and color, add decorations to your shields and cloaks, and more. "Guild-only pets and mounts" are on the way.

As a part of this update, several towers and traps have been added. Cannon turrets, ballista turrets, spike traps, and bomb traps can all be crafted to help defend against the attacking mermen.