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Conquer Online

Conquer Online is a 2D martial arts action MMORPG set in ancient China with a strong emphasis on PvP. Players can duel, participate in clan wars, and see how they match up against the world in PvP tournaments.

Publisher: TQ Digital
Playerbase: High
Type: MMORPG
Release Date: Jan 17, 2004 (NA/INTL)
PvP: Duels / Open World / Clan Wars / PvP Tournaments
Pros: +Great rebirth system. +Varied PvP options. +8 unique classes.
Cons: -PvE feels too easy. -Prevalent botting. -Powerful cash shop items.

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Overview

Conquer Online Overview

Conquer Online is 2D martial arts action MMORPG with a strong emphasis on PvP. It was one of the first free-to-play MMORPGs to launch in the West and has enjoyed huge success, reaching over 40 million registered users world-wide. Play as one of seven unique classes and create your own customized character by re-birthing and choosing new classes. With fun, fast-paced gameplay, quick leveling, and a large game world to explore, Conquer Online should keep players entertained.

Conquer Online Key Features:

  • PvP Focused Gameplay a great emphasis on PvP, where PKing is allowed and items have a chance to drop upon death.
  • Breeze on By – built-in bot that plays the game for you. Auto-hunts and uses potions.
  • Great Rebirth System – rebirth system where players can "reset" upon reaching Level 120 as a new class and gain new skills.
  • Good Skill Tree and Progression – learn new skills and job promotions at Levels 15, 40, 70, 100 and 110.

Conquer Online Screenshots

Conquer Online Featured Video

Conquer Online - Official Gameplay Trailer

Classes

Conquer Online Classes

Classes:

  • Dragon Warrior – Dragon Warriors are martial arts specialists who use Nunchakus in battle. They specialize in flash shifting, quick striking, range sweeping, and chaining combos.
  • Archer/Assassin – Archers utilize their bow and arrow to defeat their enemies from a distance. They have powerful AoE attacks that let them defeat numerous enemies at once, making them one of the fastest levelers in the game. Archers can transform into Oriental Assassins as a job promotion upon reaching Level 40. Assassins use throwing knives as their primary weapon. Archer promotions are given by the Archer God in the Job Center of Twin City.
  • Pirate Pirates use pistols and rapiers as their primary weapons and have a unique ability that only gives them half the penalty for PKing others. Players slain by a pirate have their odds of dropping items doubled, making the Pirate the best class for those looking to PK and PvP. Pirate job promotions are given by the Pirate Lord in the Job Center of Twin City.
  • Monk/Saint – Monks are dedicated martial artists that use prayer beads in battle. They have melee attacks as well as spiritual magic. Monk/Saint promotions are given by the Head Abbot in the Job Center of Twin City.
  • Ninja – Ninjas are the typical "thief" style class in Conquer Online. They are the fastest of all classes and can deal incredible damage, but have the lowest health and defense. They can only wear light armor. Ninja promotions are given by the Wild Sage in the Job Center of Twin city.
  • Trojan – Trojans are a dual-wielding melee class that specializes in all-out offense. They have lower defense than warriors, but deal more damage. Dual wielding becomes available at Level 40. Trojan promotions are given by the Trojan Star in the Job Center of Twin City.
  • Warrior – Warriors are adept in the use of every weapon in the game with the exception of bows and backswords. They also have the heaviest armor in the game. Warriors in Conquer Online are the typical balanced melee class. They can absorb tons of damage and also dish it out. Warrior promotions are given by the Warrior God in the Job Center of Twin City.
  • Fire Taoist – a fire-based offensive spell casting class. Starts off as an intern and advances to become a full-fledged Water Toaist upon reaching Level 40. Fire Taoist promotions are given by the Taoist Moon in the Job Center of Twin City.
  • Water Taoists – a more supportive and defensive spell casting class. They specialize in healing, curing, and reviving spells. Like the Fire Taoist, they start off as interns. They have a lower level requirement for rebirthing (110 vs typical 120). Water Taoist promotions are given by the Taoist Star in the Job Center of Twin City.

Subclasses:

  • Apothecary – reduced poison damage
  • Chi Master reduces critical strike damage from enemies
  • Martial Artist – increases critical strike chance
  • Warlock – increases skill critical strike chance
  • Wrangler – increases max HP
  • Sage – reduces target's magic defense
  • Performer – unique dances which grant bonus physical and magic attack

*Sub-classes can be upgraded 9 times (Enhances effect), but this requires study-points and level / rebirth prerequisites.

Full Review

Conquer Online Review

By Omer Altay

Conquer Online is a 2D fantasy MMORPG developed and published by TQ Digital and, with over 11 years in service, it is one of the longest running free-to-play MMORPGs. Conquer Online originally launched in April 2003 in China and made its way to North America and Europe shortly thereafter in January 2004. The game is powered by the C3 Engine, the same engine behind TQ Digital's other games – most notably Eudemons Online. Since Conquer Online's launch internationally in early 2004, the game has enjoyed huge success and, despite its age, is still running strong. In fact, the game's success led to the development of a mobile version on iOS.

Jumping Right In

Conquer Online can be launched in either the HD or Standard version. The difference being different resolutions. HD is 1024x768 while standard is 800x600. Players start their adventure in Conquer Online as they do in most MMORPGs – character creation. Conquer Online has eight playable classes which can be either male or female. Taoists can branch off into offensive Fire Taoists or more supportive Water Taoists upon reaching Level 40. Other classes offer a more linear form of progression, at least until players start rebirthing into new classes. Aside from simply selecting your class, the only other form of appearance customization is body size where players can select either “big” or “small.”

Welcome to Twin City

The first thing players are requested to do upon entering the world of Conquer Online is to talk to “Kungfu boy,” which introduces players to the game's basic tutorial. The game has players auto-pathing around town to meet various important NPCs, like the warehouse manager and your class trainer. Graphically speaking, Conquer Online looks and plays a lot like Monkey King Online and League of Angels, in the same way that both games are incredibly easy and leveling is fast-paced. Players can reach Level 15 simply by completing the first few quests and Level 30 within 30 minutes. Experience gain slows down after that, but is still brisk.

Gameplay

Gameplay in Conquer Online feels incredibly easy. The interface reminds me of Mu Online and Diablo, but the difficulty here is absurdly easy. Every class in the game can clear the entire screen of enemies within seconds. As a Dragon Warrior, I could just swing my nunchakus and kill 2-3 stacked enemies in a single attack. Regular skills are learned simply by leveling up and visiting a class trainer. Conquer Online does an interesting job of making players feel incredibly powerful, but the game poses no challenge.

The EXP skills are even more powerful and are class specific. These EXP skills can only be used when your golden bar near your health and mana fill up. This bar fills up on its own regardless of player input. Once it fills up, players can use any EXP skill they have for up to 20 seconds. These skills are incredibly powerful and can be used to defeat most same-level enemies in a single hit. On my Taoist character, I could blow up multiple enemies at once with the “Chain Lightning” skill. I'd clear the entire screen in a few seconds. There are plenty of quests in Conquer Online and completing them is easy since the game has a built in auto-pathing system that moves players to quest destinations quickly.

Another Game with a Built-in Bot

Conquer Online has a built-in bot called the “Auto-fighting” system, which automatically grinds experience for players. The system even has an auto-potion system that ensures players won't die while automatically grinding. Conquer Online isn't the only game with one of these built-in bots. Angels Online and Granada Espado are two other MMORPGs that feature a similar auto-fighting system. Seems kind of silly for an MMORPG to include a built-in bot. I'm a firm believer that a game should be fun enough for me to want to play it, not just set it up and forget it. On the other hand, since eliminating botting is nearly impossible, including a built-in bot levels the playing field. Oddly, the “auto-fighting” system in Conquer Online is pretty limited for free users. Players need to be VIP Level 4 to enable auto-looting and VIP Level 3 to enable jumping while auto-fighting. VIP Level 3 requires players to spend $400 while VIP Level 4 requires $1,000.

PvP – Conquer Online's Bread and Butter

PvP plays a large role in Conquer Online, as the game features open world PvP, Arenas, Clan Wars, Faction Wars, Cross-Server Capture the Flag, PvP tournaments, and more. The game's open PvP is interesting as anyone can PK anyone else indiscriminately. To prevent mindless PKing though, the game penalizes the aggressor with 10 PK points for every innocent person they PK. After reaching 30 PK points a player's name appears in red and black if they reach 100+ points. Players with Red or Black names who get killed by other players have a chance of dropping their equipment. Whoever kills these players are rewarded with the gear they drop. The person who drop's their gear can opt to pay a set amount of Conquer Points (cash shop currency) to the person that defeated them to avoid losing their gear. The pirate class in specifically aimed at PvP fans, as Pirates only get half the PK point penalty as other classes and have twice the chance of making an enemy drop gear when killed by them.

Other PvP options exist, too. Every week players can compete in the game's Class PK War, which is essentially a tournament for everyone of the same class. Warriors fight Warriors, Taoists fight Taosts, and so on. The purpose of this is to determine the strongest person in that class each week. The game also features weekly faction wars, couple tournaments, and more. There are a LOT of PvP options in Conquer Online, but given that much of the game is pay-to-win, it's hard to get excited about it.

Cash shop... Literally Pay to Win

The cash shop in Conquer Online is very much titled towards pay-to-win. Nearly every aspect of Conquer Online can be “enhanced” with cash. The more cash players spend, the more powerful their characters are and the higher their “VIP” level. Players that spend $4,000 can reach VIP Level 6. Conquer Online is designed to get players to spend as much cash as possible, as the amount a player is willing to spend is almost directly proportional to how strong they can become in-game. The game even sells gear outright in the cash shop. Surprisingly though, despite the game's pay-to-win elements, Conquer Online is still quite popular.

The most hilarious part of Conquer Online's cash shop, though, is its get out-of-jail system. Players caught botting or using other illegal programs/hacks are sent to the game's “botjail.” The only way out is to pay 2,000 CP ($24) for first-time offenders and 5,000 ($50) CP for second-time offenders. Most games usually ban hackers, but Conquer Online tries to milk them for cash the same way they try milking everyone else.

Final Verdict – Fair

Despite it's pay-to-win elements and age, Conquer Online is still a surprisingly entertaining game if you can look past it's dated visuals. At least for a while. It's one of those games that won't appeal to newer players, but still maintains its core audience. With so many more interesting MMORPGs out there, it's hard to recommend Conquer Online.

Screenshots

Conquer Online Screenshots

Videos

Conquer Online Videos

Playlist: Conquer Online

System Requirements

Conquer Online System Requirements

Minimum Requirements:

Operating System: XP / Vista / 7 / 8
CPU: Intel Pentium 3 800 MHz or AMD Equivalent
Video Card: Any 16 MB Graphics Card
RAM: 128 MB
Hard Disk Space: 2 GB

Recommended Requirements:

Operating System: XP / Vista / 7 / 8
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 1.5 GHz or AMD Equivalent
Video Card: GeForce2 64 MB or better
RAM: 256 MB
Hard Disk Space: 4 GB

Conquer Online originally released back in 2003, so practically any modern PC sold after 2003 be able to run the game smoothly. Conquer Online is also Mac compatible.

Music

Conquer Online Music & Soundtrack


Additional Info

Conquer Online Additional Information

Developer: Netdragon Websoft
Engine: C3 Engine (Used in all of Netdragon's 2D games)
Other Platforms: iOS / Android / Mac
Closed Beta Date: November 2003 (English servers)

Foreign Release:

Conquer Online is self-published in all regions through Netdragon's 99.com portal. The game is available in English, Arabic, Spanish, French, and Chinese.

Development History / Background:

Conquer Online was developed by Chinese gaming studio Netdragon Websoft and is powered by the C3 game engine. The company self-publishes the game in the US as well as globally through their TQ Digital portal (99.com). Conquer Online originally launched in China back in April 2003 and quickly expanded globally. The game's English servers launched globally in January 2004 and quickly grew to become one of the most popular Chinese MMORPGs in the Western world. Conquer Online was Netdragon's second self-developed MMORPG and, with over 40 million registered users worldwide, is their most successful title. The game's success locally and abroad led to the development of a mobile version of the game for iOS and Android called Conquer Online 2: Infinite Battle.