Video Game / Tibia

You'll never forget your first dragon

— One of the game's taglines

Tibia is a German High Fantasy MMORPG, that has been online since January 1997^note thus predating the much more famous long-runner MMO Ultima Online, which launched in September, making it one of the oldest of its kind that's still active. It is free to play but includes a premium option with extra areas and outfits (and other bonuses, such as access to fast travel between cities). While most MMORPGs have changed to 3D, Tibia is still played in 2D.

Popular in Poland and Brazil, for some reason. Servers exist in the UK, the US and Brazil.

Players get to choose from four classes:

• Knight, melee class with limited magic skills. Naturally has the best defense mechanisms in game.
• Paladin, ranger class, using distance fighting and occassionally holy magic. Is decent in defense as well, though lacks allot of the tricks the knight has.
• Sorcerer, the Black Mage. Masters fire and energy, but also has a couple of death spells.
• Druid, the White Mage, can be just as aggressive as sorcerers but not quite as cost effective. They make up for this by being the best healers. Masters ice and earth.

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Includes Examples of:

• Alcohol Hic: In addition to this, getting drunk also makes you unable to completely control your walking.
• Allegedly Free Game: To access the majority of the game's areas, quests and other content, you'll need to shell out a minimum of ~$10 for 30 days of Premium Time. And getting most of the level 200+ equipment, which usually starts at around 1,000,000 gp and increases in price exponentially as you level up, will likely require you shell out money for Tibia Coins that you can then sell on the game's Market for gp, unless you want to farm the daily bosses (which require 5-man teams or mastering tricky mechanics, or both) with less than a 1% chance of dropping the level-appropriate equipment.
• Anachronism Stew: Alongside the standard Medieval Fantasy mainland, we get Viking-like barbarians, an Expy Ancient Egypt and 18th century styled Pirates (without firearms, however) Pirate Buccaneers are actually seen holding a lit bomb, of course it doesn't actually factor into any of their fighting.
• An Ice Person: Druids are able to use ice spells that aren't available to other classes.

• Art Evolution: The game has undergone several huge improvements in graphics.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The Ultimate Explosion was a huge mana drain, and while it did a lot of damage on a large area, it was not really practical on most hunts. It was later remade into four different spells. However, these four different spells aren't near as powerful as Ultimate Explosion was. The main problem with UE was that it wasted 800 mana points - A Master Sorcerer needed 50 minutes without using a single spell to accumulate such power, and flasks of mana fluid were very expensive, costing a small fortune to fill your mana meter. But when it fired it was THE big gun, doing an average of three times the damage of the strongest single-target spell (which was already 3x stronger than a top-level knight/paladin hit) inside of a radius that reached the screen borders, filling the screen. And only one creature was immune to it back then, the pitifully weak Ghost. The magic and damage system was revamped, so levels and magic levels would play a bigger level on damage calculation and they would finally influence how much damage physical weapons did (back then, a level 8 and a level 200 Knight did exactly the same damage, given the same weapon and the same skill level, while magic damage could be boosted with either level or magic level grinding). The mana regeneration was quadrupled, vials of mana fluid were discontinued and in their place came mana potions, providing twice as much mana for half the price and less regen variance (flasks of mana fluid itself weren't converted to mana potions, turning them into a semi-rare collector's item and a reminder of the old times). The tradeoff? Good for druids, giving up their joke attack "Poison Storm" for Wild Growth and Eternal Winter, while Sorcerers gave up their weapon of mass destruction in exchange for Inferno and Thunderstorm. Even with the exponential evolution of powers of the new damage system, both spells do not come even near the old Ultimate Explosion. Most top-level monsters are kinda drawn to fire and lightning, so they are either immune or highly resistant to it. In a way, if the Ultimate Explosion was kept, it would be awesome but practical. Ultimate Explosion had its place as a weapon for killing highest level players thanks to its incredible damage enabling Alpha Strike tactics, skipping what would otherwise be a lengthy process of exhausting enemy healing supplies and risking them either escaping to a Protection Zone or having their friends arrive to help.
• Bag of Holding: There is a "backpack of holding", though it is just a lightweight backpack with 20% extra slots.
• Barrier Warrior: The 'Magic Shield' spell, which causes damage to the caster to be subjected from MP instead of HP. Useful against bosses and for emergencies, but not so much when hunting in general, since keeping the shield up reliably requires a lot of Mana potions which are costly, and using mana for healing spells is always more efficient than 1:1 conversion ratio of Mana Shield. This was changed in late 2020 when the Magic Shield spell's mechanics were altered. It no longer uses the entire mana bar, but only a portion of it, and it cannot be refueled with mana potions, but with Magic Shield Potions.
• Beef Gate: Very common as there is nothing stopping players from accessing pretty much any area the moment they leave the tutorial island. Rathleton is a classic example as the only way to the city makes you pass through an area full of Oramond Minotaurs.
• Big Bad: Several major villains exist, the worst being the evil god Zathroth.
• Bragging Rights Reward: The four rewards one may choose from the Annihilator quest: Sword of Valor, Stonecutter Axe, Demon Armor or Gift Box. The box contains a teddy bear.
• Breakable Weapons: The Ice rapier historically (a very powerful sword, with an equally high chance of breaking with each hit), it has since just became the ice equivalent of the fire sword though.
• Bribing Your Way to Victory: If you don't like working hard to get to a high level, you can literally buy someone else's character using Tibia Coins. More specifically, you can find people who are selling their characters on the game's Character Auctions and bid on them using Tibia Coins. Granted, there are a slew of (understandable) restrictions on what characters can be bought and sold, and the seller has to pay a non-refundable 50 Tibia Coins (~$2) just to post an auction, plus CipSoft gets a 12.5% commission on every auction. Extremely high level (1000+) characters will get auctioned off for hundreds of thousands of Tibia Coins, translating to thousands of euros/dollars in real world money!
• Cheap Gold Coins: Gold pieces are the smallest unit of currency. A dead rat's carcass is worth two gold pieces.
• Color-Coded Elements / Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors:
  • Fire is red and most promimently weak to Ice.
  • Ice is blue and most promimently weak to Energy.
  • Energy is purple and most promimently weak to Earth.
  • Earth is green and most promimently weak to Fire.
  • Holy, Death and Physical don't have any specific colors but usually appear as yellow, black and steel-gray respectively (with creature-appropriate colored damage numbers: flesh-and-blood creatures have red, undead have grey, slimes lose it in green, etc.).
• Continuing is Painful: Dying causes you to lose a set percentage of your xp and skills (meaning you can loose weeks worth of work on higher levels), the contents of your backpack and a random chance to lose any item that you have equipped. While the xp and item loss can be reduced/eliminated with blessings, these can get very costly on higher levels. So if you don't have them and want to get your items back, you have exactly 10 minutes to get back to your body before it decays and there is nothing stopping other players from looting it in the meantime.
• Crystal Weapon: There is the Crystalline Axe, which is made of red crystal for a blade and is one of the strongest one-handed axes, the Crystal Wand, which is obtained via quest, the Crystal Sword, a weak weapon for beginner knights, the Crystal Crossbow (and Crystal Arrows), a powerful weapon for high-leveled paladins, and the non-usable quest item the Crystal Cannon.
• Cult: There are numerous cultists who attempts to summon demons, both in Liberty Bay and in Svargrond.
• Die, Chair, Die!: When you push innocent furniture through a crowded town, Hilarity Ensues.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Druids can use nature / earth magic.

• Dude, Where's My Respect?: From a book in the Isle of the Kings library:
  "[...]I was there when Rorak slew Tingil at the stairs of the seven temples. I was there as Riik led his peaceloving people to the far north to find refuge from the war. I was there to witness the betrayal of Asric for the whims of a female that was long dead by then. I fought with the last Frdai a futile battle on the plains of Weskurt against the unseen legion. I witnessed Ss'rar making his move on ascension to become the serpent god. I watched the first elves struggling to form a nation with the help of the lightbearers. It was me who assisted the great calculator to assemble the bonelords language. And you come here to this mountain and ask me how to win the heart of some shepherdess? This world has become a ridiculous mockery."
• Dungeon Bypass: There are two ways to complete the Alawar's Vault Quest and raid the vault of Castle Senja. The proper way involving you trekking through the complete utter maze that is the Folda dungeon. Or you can just find a hidden lever in the castles cellar and go through the backdoor straight to the vault.
• Elite Mooks: High class lizards and Mooh'tah Minotaur's. Booth of which are at least four times as strong as the more common ones you fight at low level. High class lizards also gets a further upgrade in the from of the Draken, which they reluctantly serve.
• Elves Versus Dwarves: Hinted by some ingame books, otherwise, they don't seem to interact much.
• Enough to Go Around: In the Pirate Outfit quest, every player is set the task of assassinating a rival pirate captain and frame the results by retrieving his favourite pillow and presenting it as evidence. You'd think the contractor of the assassination would catch on around the time he'd knee-deep in pillows.

• Face–Heel Turn: The green djinns, Arkhoteps generals, the people in Outlaw Camp and the heroes of Edron.
• Freemium: While a lot of the game is available for free players, Premium players are given access to special quests and areas, as well as additional perks that make life easier, like priority in the login queues or access to a server populated only by Premium users, and therefore much less crowded than the other servers. Premium time is obtained through Premium Scrolls, an item that is purchased with real money. The funny thing is, Premium Scrolls are tradeable, so a player who is feeling particularly generous can buy Premium time for someone else.
• Glass Weapon:
  • There's an obsidian lance as a dropped weapon, and in a quest it can be combined with steel to create an obsidian knife.
  • There's also the Ice Rapier and Glooth Weapons, which are absurdly powerful but break after 1 and 2 hits respectively.
• God-Emperor: The Pharao of Ankrahmun is both the main priest and the god of his own religion. His powers are restricted to his kingdom and is based on undeath.
• Here There Be Dragons: One look at this map and you will NEVER want to swim in this game, ever.◊

• Holier Than Thou: Paladins, as in most games. They didn't start out as this, however, as pre-2007 the Holy element didn't exist in game and Paladins were mere rangers.
• Humans Are Special: According to backstory on the website, humans were the last race created by gods to defeat the evil in the world, after Dwarves and Elves failed. Humans are also the only player race.
• Lady Land: the City of Carlin, ruled by a queen, female guards. Also the Amazon camps.
• Lampshade Hanging: Courtesy of the in-game book series Adventure's Guide to the Dungeon, lampshading the fact that trolls drop gold and that ropes need to be on the ground for adventures to climb UP.
• Literal Bookworm: Enraged Bookworms are enemies encountered in Yalahar Library during the Shadows of Yalahar Quest. They're fairly weak and turn into fishing bait upon defeat.
• Medieval Stasis: Every race has been around for a while, but the most technologically advanced thing is a steamboat made by dwarves.

• Necromancer: There are several factions of them in the game, most of them servants of Urgith, the god of death. They are mainly represented by Mid-level Mooks.
  • Players can also dabble in the art trough the Raise Undead spell (creates a single skeleton from a corpse, so its in generally considered quite useless) and the now removed Undead legion (created skeletons from every corpse around you, making it useful if you needed some Cannon Fodder between you and the enemy.)
  • The Bonelords also practice necromancy.
• Not the Intended Use: The mail system was introduced as an easy way to send items between players, but its also very useful for transporting large amounts of items between cities safely by mailing them to yourself. The developers has even acknowledged this use by releasing a quest that unlocks additional mailboxes close to several remote hunting grounds.

• Our Monsters Are Different: Many of the cases: trolls are low level monster with no special attributes, Dragons have wings but don't fly, Vampires are almost nonsentient Undead, except for the bosses and NPCs.

• Purely Aesthetic Gender: Some aversions: NPC H.L. at the Outlaw Camp doesn't do business with women, and only women can taunt one of the vampire bosses to show up.
• Rainbow Pimp Gear: This very trope was mentioned on the Tibia forums. The game itself suffers from this kind of gear as well, just take a look at the so-called blocking set.
• Recycled In Space: Nearly all the cold climate creatures are new versions of several of the older creatures. Can you say frost dragon?
• Secret Circle of Secrets: Azerus and his minions in Yalahar all dress up in face concealing robes and masks and attempts to summon an entity from the void.
• Sequence Breaking: Very common with quests as many just lets you go straight to the reward room if you know how to. The Desert Dungeon Quest is a famous example as the actual quest involves you exploring the dungeon in order to discover how to open said reward room.
  • Many quests also don't care if you buy a quest item from Black Bert or acquire it the way the quest intended. Allowing you to skip entire segments sometimes.
  • A lot of quests can also be bypassed
• Shock and Awe: Sorcerers are able to use thunder-based spells.
• Shop Fodder: There's a lot of Random Drops used only for sale. Most NPC actually have valid reason for why they are buying such stuff in bulk. (Examples include Fiona, who buys magical components for use in her research, Baxter who buys Orc stuff like Orc Leather as a form of bounty and Irmana, who buys fabrics and unique materials for use in her fine clothing business.)

• Summon Magic:
  • Both Sorcerers and druids have access to the 'Summon Creature' spell, which allows them to summon various creatures to help them in combat. Even if the creature in question is implied to be rather dumb, since they refuse to follow you up or down stairs.
  • A related spell is 'Convince Creature' which has the same end result, but convinces wild creatures to help you instead.
• Super-Speed: A small speed increase is added upon every level up. Combining naturally high speed with speed-boosting items and spells can turn a high-leveled player into nothing but a blur across the screen.
• Super-Strength: All vocations can use some practical, but rare, potions to boost their skills.
• Squishy Wizard: Both Sorcerers and Druids, who gain hp and shielding skill much slower than paladin/knights nor can they wear as heavy armor. Somewhat balanced up though since they can instead use Mana Shield and summoned creatures to take hits for them.
• Technicolor Fire:
  • Beyond normal red flames, blue flames pop up here and there and usually signify a teleport spot. There also exist purple flames, which are a lot more dangerous to step in than normal fire and outdamage regular fire fields even without causing the burning status effect.
  • Players using the default non-aggression setting can also shoot pale yellow fire that only causes harm to creatures (that aren't assigned to other players as summons).
• The Necrocracy: Booth Ankrahmun and Razachai are type IV as the kingdom/City is ruled by an undead Pharao and Dragon respectively. Their subjects are for the most part alive.
• 20 Bear Asses: Ever since outfit addons were introduced in 2006, the in-game economy is largely dependent on this.
• Underground Monkey: All over the place with earlier creatures such as Trolls, which comes in booth normal (brown), frost (blue) and swamp (green) varieties, all of which share the same sprite. Mostly averted nowadays though.
• White Mage: Druids in theory. They have access to the best healing spells and the only ones who can heal other party members outside of potions/runes. Downplayed though, since they can be just as deadly as sorcerers against the right enemy.

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