Here is the official announcement thread for the Winter Festival of 2015!

Start Time: Wednesday, December 23rd at 12:00 PM
End Time: Monday, January 11th at 11:59 PM

The Winter Festival is when Sylestians take time to give and share with their friends and family. It is an especially celebrated time of the year because it marks the yearly return of the Griffies! Over the next two+ weeks, you can participate in many various activities to obtain unique rewards, to find unique pets, and most importantly to have a lot of fun!


New Genes Released

https://www.sylestia.com/forums/?thread=31789#forumtop

We have released 10 new Genes in celebration of the Winter Festival!


New Mutations Released

https://www.sylestia.com/forums/?thread=31791#forumtop

We have released 17 new Mutations in celebration of the Winter Festival!





Explore the Festival Zone

http://www.sylestia.com/explore/newzone/?zone=esiorsfieldswinterfestival
This zone is recommended for players using pets of Level 10 and above!

The above will take you to the Festival Zone for the Winter Festival. Please note, if you are exploring another zone in Astryl's Vale, you will have to exit the zone first. If you are in a battle, you will have to finish your battle first.

The zone is currently host to 16 uniquely themed Sylesties, the Griffi, six Named, themed Sylesti Nests, and a pile of Wrapped Presents waiting to be found! Additionally, Tyrielle and her bandits have struck again. Help Mother Frost save the Winter Festival by thwarting Tyrielle and her bandits. It's also rumored that very rare and limited themed Sylesties can be obtained from Tyrielle herself.

Note: We will be retiring the Zone Themed and releasing 16 new Themed variants very soon!




Sylesti Bakery

http://www.sylestia.com/festival/festival_winter/sylesti_bakery/

The Sylesti Bakery has returned! Meet Pastry Chef Francois and help him bake themed Dessert Sylesties by gathering various ingredients from the festival. There are 16 various Dessert Syleties that require specific recipes to be created. The recipes from last year have been retired and will no longer work. While you will have to figure out the specific recipes on your own, each recipe requires the following:

-A set of Baking Utensils from the Festival Shop or Diamond Shop
-A Special Spice of a species. These can be collected by using a Special Spice Extractor on Rare or above pets in the Festival Zone. The higher the rarity, the more traits your creation will have!
-A number of Uncommon Ingredients. Gather these by defeating Baking Elves or Named in the Festival Zone.
-A number of Rare Ingredients. Gather these by defeating Baking Elves or Named in the Festival Zone.

Once you have sufficient ingredients, you will have to mix and match ingredients to figure out the correct recipe.

Note: We will be addressing the inventory issue with Ingredients as soon as we can. Additionally, we will be implementing a way to upgrade the quality of Spices.




Stuff Player Stockings

https://www.sylestia.com/festival/festival_winter/stocking_stuffing/?userid=1#tottop

Stocking Stuffing is a new feature this year that allows you to stuff other players' stockings! From now through December 31st, visit a fellow player of Sylestia and select an item from your Inventory to stuff into their stocking.

When stuffing, please note that only certain items are eligible. Eligible items include almost everything Winter Festival-related, Essences, Avatar Items, and some Philters.

Once it's December 25th, the Grand Winter Feast Day, all players will be able to open their Stockings to see what other players stuffed into them!




Explore the Winter Wonderland

http://www.sylestia.com/festival/festival_winter/winter_wonderland/

The Winter Wonderland is now open! The Winter Wonderland is similar to the Haunted House, but with some minor changes. You can purchase an entry with either Diamonds, Gold, or Frost Tokens. If you purchase with Diamonds, you are guaranteed to reach Stage 3 of the game. If you purchase with Gold, you are guaranteed to reach Stage 2 of the game.

On each Stage, you will have the opportunity to search for various hidden treasure including Prismatic Philters, Magical Pies, Pet Dyes, Genetic Mutators, Perfumes, Trait Disruptors, an unique Avatar Set, Baking Supplies, and Exclusive Themed Pets!

There are three stages to the Winter Wonderland. In the first stage, you must explore the Snowy Field and find a Wonderland Wand if not already guaranteed to the next Stage. From there, you must fish to find more hidden treasure on the Frozen Lake. If you reach the final stage, you will be able to unwrap presents underneath the Christmas Tree! On this Stage is where the best items are located including the Exclusive Fabled Themed Pets and Philters of Trait Disruption.

This is definitely a feature that you won't want to miss!




Collect the Winter Festival Avatar Items

http://www.sylestia.com/shops/holidayshop/

Be sure to check out the Festival Shop to spend your Frost Tokens! Available are Avatar Items, Baking Supplies, and Retired Avatar Item Boxes.


Participate in Forum Games

http://www.sylestia.com/forums/?forum=24

Throughout the Festival, we will be hosting many various Forum Games. Visit the link above and look for any stickied thread that begins with "Winter Festival".

Don't miss out! Participating in many of the games will guarantee you a prize. Others offer such great prizes for winning that you won't want to miss out!

It all looks great except the winter wonderland. It's way too expensive. How are people who don't have diamonds or gold supposed to enjoy the feature? I feel like a lot of people are being left out here. The Haunted houses prices were more reasonable as far as diamonds go but the gold price for the winter wonderland should be lowered to at least 50,000-100,000 gold to be fair

I was curious about the baskets in the festival shop, I know there's a chance for a spice but are those spices only rare or can they be epic and legendary?

Great!! ^.^

I would like to ask though to make the avatar item drop rate higher then the last fest please!! I was very disappointed last fest... I couldnt get all the items, even when I played almost every day...

Link: https://www.sylestia.com/forums/?thread=31697&page=1#2 Author: Kitzune Time Posted: 12/23/2015 at 6:23 PM It all looks great except the winter wonderland. It's way too expensive. How are people who don't have diamonds or gold supposed to enjoy the feature? I feel like a lot of people are being left out here. The Haunted houses prices were more reasonable as far as diamonds go but the gold price for the winter wonderland should be lowered to at least 50,000-100,000 gold to be fair

The Diamond entry fee was increased from 250 to 500. The Gold entry fee was increased from 750k to 1M. The Festival Currency entry fee remained the same.

The Winter Wonderland offers much better prizes than the Haunted House did which is part of the reason for the increase in entry fees. But the main reason for the increase is because the Diamond entry guarantees you all three Stages of the game and the Gold entry guarantees you the first two Stages of the game. That is the main reason for the price increases.

Link: https://www.sylestia.com/forums/?thread=31697&page=1#3 Author: LDDarcWolf Time Posted: 12/23/2015 at 6:27 PM I was curious about the baskets in the festival shop, I know there's a chance for a spice but are those spices only rare or can they be epic and legendary?

Yep. All 3 are possible.

Hey, sorry to bother you if I'm being paranoid but I can't seem to recall ever getting any uncommon ingredients as boss drops. Is this just odd luck or something intentional or a mistake?

I believe bosses drop rares only and to offset, the Baking Elves drop a higher ratio of Uncommons.

Is there a list that shows compatible ingredients, cause I am buying them from the trade. It's a waste of gold if they end up not working with what I have... As I have just found out after buying some already and they don't work together.

Hi Butterfly, you can find a list of compatible ingredients here but I would honestly recommend looking through the General Discussion and Item Trades forums to find more information on Baking, other players have posted quite a bit of handy info.