The August event launches on August 1st at 00:00am LDT, and will end on August 31st at 11:59pm LDT. All unused event currency will be stored on your account until next year.

August Event - Droughts and Fires!

A ravaging Sahel Drought disrupts migrations sweeping across Africa, claiming the lives of humans, livestock, and wildlife. With animals dying, many camps have been set to feed hippos and provide basic sources of water for animals who need it most, such as elephants. Reports on rivers drying up are increasing by the day, as the wet seasons never seem to arrive.

What will the lions do? Will you rampage local farms and villages, or try to survive on scarce herds and starved corpses? Will you cause further conflict, or succumb to the plans of nature?

The drought event is intended to be harsh. You will struggle to survive. Your huntresses may fail to bring back carcasses, and your main male may struggle to battle if he's too thirsty.

Shops and Progress
This month, your decisions will affect the Good and Evil bars, as well as your karma. If you guys are evil opportunistic bastards, the Evil bar will fill out first, unlocking the Destroyers shop. If you guys decide to be good instead, the Good bar will fill out, unlocking the Preservers shop. Each shop has a theme and contains different decors.

The shop bars will respond only to your actions. How exactly does that work?

Both the Preservers and Destroyers progression bars will show when you have 0 Evil/Good Points, but once you choose your path, it will only show the bar for whichever shop you are progressing towards. Earning Good Points progresses the bar towards the Preservers, while earning Evil Points progresses the bar towards the Destroyers. The shops unlock at 300 points. You can reduce the points in the bar by choosing the opposite actions. If you're maxed for the Destroyers, and you want the Preservers, you will need to earn 600 Good Points to open the shop. It's a bit like having -300 karma, and trying to get to +300!

This way, once you've decided that you're done being naughty, and you've bought all you needed from the Destroyers, you can begin saving humans and animals in Explore to push your bar towards the Preservers. We hope this will make you work towards your own goals without any frustration and pressure from the community!

Please note that only one shop may be open at a time, depending on which direction you've swayed the bar. If you participated in August's event in 2019, your shop alignment progress should be wiped this year!

Currency
The rewards in the Destroyers and Preservers will be fully unlocked from the very start. The magic here is to gather the currency for this month, which are Carrion Beetles and Dried Bones. You will find them in Explore.

Other Areas
There are two additional bars on the Event page: Humans Killed & Dried Bones Collected.
Of course, they're also based on the Good and Evil incentives, but they'll progress continuously throughout the event. These bars are unlocked based on the actions of the community as a whole - they are not personalised.

The Humans Killed bar will unlock special August event-only studs, while the Dried Bones Collected bar will unlock the Peddler Shop, with its extra features such as Tracking Herds and Vulture Chasing.

You will also notice a thirst bar on your side panel. 100% thirst means that you are extremely thirsty and need to find a source of water. You can do so by using thirst-quenching items or getting lucky in Explore. Your thirst will drop by 5% every 30 minutes. 0% thirst means you're good to go!

What, exactly, does thirst affect? If you're too thirsty, you won't be able to battle any NPCs.

So... will you eat humans? Will you protect animals? Good luck, lions!

Recap
- Carrion Beetles and Dried Bones are this month's currency. Carrion Beetles are for the Destroyers and Preservers, and Dried Bones are for the Peddler.
- No wet seasons; Explore images are extra dry.
- Hunting will fail more often - food will be scarce!
- Being cruel will give you Evil Points towards the Evil bar.
- Being kind will give you Good Points towards the Good bar.
- All players should start off August 2020 in a neutral alignment and not have either shop already unlocked.
- You can only have access to one shop at a time, depending upon your actions.
- Thirst drops by 5% every 30 minutes.
- You cannot battle NPCs if you are too thirsty! Try exploring for water sources instead. You can also try to buy herbs from the Beetle Grounds for a chance at receiving a water item!
- The "Great Fires" encounter in Explore has many possible outcomes.
- Unlocking the global bars will grant you new titles!
- Mysterious Stranger is an extremely rare encounter that can give you various things, including the Solaris base applicator!

2020 Changes
- Available studs will swap around to a total of 6 unique studs: 2 Tsavo, 2 Savage, and 2 Pariah. This year, they will have brand new unique bases and markings.
- 3 new explore encounters!
- New decors in the event shops!
- 1 new crafting recipe for water items, available year-round!
- For the development update on August 14th, we will add new battle beetle tokens to both event shops!
- MANY encounters had their art refreshed! We're working hard on updating older art encounters, and we may not be able to cover everything we want each month, but seeing the progress is very exciting and we're incredibly proud of our art team!

Updated Art Encounters
* Bones
* Carrion with Leopard
* Carrion with Vultures
* Dying Lioness
* Dying Zebra
* Flaming Lion
* Giraffe
* Hippo Carcass
* Remains
* Thirsty Zebra
* Wild African Ass Foal
* Wildebeest

The new crafting recipe is the Waterbringer Pouch.


30x Aloe Leaf
2x Water Root
5x Stripped Cacti
5x African Cucumber

Remember that this month unlocks the "Fire Escape" minigame for the August event. It can be found in the Games area as soon as August's event begins!

For newcomers as well as older users, the August Event Wiki Page will be very handy!

In 2020, the Man-Eating Studs will introduce a new base: Ukame (Golden Light Solid Special) and a matching set of Ukame markings. They will also carry the Ruffian base, Ruffian markings, Scoundrel base, and Scoundrel markings.

Vredefort Flood Pit Quest Notice
If you are on the Journey to Vredefort Crater quest and you need to access the Flood Pit to continue, it will be manually opened from 12am Lioden time to 11:59pm Lioden time on August 14th and August 28th!