As a reminder, the Settlers Online servers will come down Wednesday night at 11:45PM PDT (2:45AM EDT) for a 5 hour maintenance. The game will be playable at 5:00AM (PT). During this time, the website may be down.

Be sure to follow The Settlers Online on Facebook Twitter for news and exclusive updates!

See you in-game,

~BB_Effiluna

Ubisoft Community Manager

Greetings Settlers,

Last week, the new developer's diary post informed you about a new complex feature that will go live in 2013. It will introduce new adventures, new enemies, impressive new buildings, new resources, and new items.

The first version of these high-level player challenges can be tested on our public test server starting today.

The public test starts at approximately 8:30 PDT / 11:30 EDT!

Click here to visit the public test server!

Please note: This content is still being tested and is not finalized.

See you in-game,

~BB_Effiluna

Ubisoft Community Manager

This week's winner is WhiteAngelYY! We loved her simple garden with friendly visiting deer!

Click here to see the full pic, as well as share your own!

See you in-game,

~BB_Effiluna

Ubisoft Community Manager

Greetings Settlers,

Have you entered our Caption Contest? The premise is simple: Make up a caption for the image below.

5 Players will win 500 Gems each. Only one entry per person. This contest will only be available until June 30th, so act fast!

Click here to participate!

See you in-game,

~BB_Effiluna

Ubisoft Community Manager

Greetings Settlers,

In celebration of new features that went live this week in The Settlers Online: Castle Empire, we've decided to hold a "Name Your Geologist" contest! Share the new custom name of your favorite geologist and give your geologist a backstory for a chance to win up to 750 gems!

Click here to participate!

See you in game,

~BB_Effiluna

Ubisoft Community Manager

Greetings Settlers,

Our Pro Tip Event has come to a close and we are thrilled to announce our winners! Thank you to everyone who participated. Keep an eye on the Events and Promotions forum for more contests and more chances to win coming soon!

Click here for the full list of winners!

See you in game,

~BB_Effiluna

Ubisoft Community Manager

Greetings Settlers,

On May 31st a new rare buff was revealed that speeds up the bookbinder.
As promised, all of you who played the game between Monday, May 27th
and Monday, June 10th will receive three of this special item today.

• Name: Bookbinding Glue
• Effect: Increases the production speed of the Bookbinder to 200% for 24 hours
• Usage: You can use it on your home zone, it is tradable

The "bookbinder glue" is a special Science System buff.

If you played during the time frame specified, check your in-game mail.
We have started to send out these items, but it may take up to 1 hour until all buffs are delivered.

See you in-game,

~BB_Effiluna

Ubisoft Community Manager

Greetings Settlers,

The Science System is now live! Log in NOW to check out these exciting new features:

• 7 brand new buildings, new production chains and 9 new resources.
• A skill tree for geologists (with 20 different skills!).
• The ability to specialize each of your geologists individually.
• A few tutorial quests and help windows to help guide you on your path.
• The ability to assign unique names to each of your specialists.

For more details, visit the Science System Developer’s Diary as well as the patch notes over in our official forums.

See you in-game,

~BB_Effiluna

Ubisoft Community Manager

Greetings Settlers,

We would like to encourage you to visit Uplay.com to read the latest news and updates from Ubisoft at E3!

Some of you have already discovered the special voucher code for The Settlers Online: Castle Empire available on the Uplay website.
Click here to learn more!

Happy Settling,

The Settlers Online: Castle Empire Team

Greetings Settlers,

In May, we published three developer's diary posts. Why not start June with another dev diary?

On Friday, you got a sneak peek at one of the new buildings. But there is much more you should know about, including these mysterious magic beans...

Click here to read our new dev diary and learn about the challenging fairy-tale adventures coming later this year!

See you in-game,

~BB_Effiluna

Ubisoft Community Manager

This week's winner is Supra-X! We loved the attention to detail and his use of stone walls.

Click here to see the full pic, as well as share your own!

See you in-game,

~BB_Effiluna

Ubisoft Community Manager

Greetings Settlers,

Are you ready to train specialized geologists? The new Science System will be deployed next week! It will consist of new buildings, new production chains, new resources, and the geologist skill tree. Learn more about our upcoming Science System in our previous Science System Dev Diary.

Next week, we will also be sharing a brand new Developer's Diary! In next week's Dev Diary, we will discuss a cool new feature that will go live this year!

See you in-game,

~BB_Effiluna

Ubisoft Community Manager

Do you want a chance to outwit your fellow settlers and earn some free gems in the process? Tune in to GM Trivia in the Global-1 chat channel on Fridays at 10:00pm EST on Zeus and 10:30pm EST on Ares for a chance to win!

Click here for full details on our weekly GM Trivia event!

See you in-game,

~BB_Effiluna

Ubisoft Community Manager

Greetings Settlers,

In anticipation of the new Science System that will be hitting our servers next week, we've decided to hold a new Caption Contest! The premise is simple: Make up a caption for the image below.

5 Players will win 500 Gems each. Only one entry per person. This contest will only be available from June 6th to June 30th, so act fast!

Click here to participate!

See you in-game,

~BB_Effiluna

Ubisoft Community Manager

Greetings Settlers,

Today, we're happy to share a brand new episode of "Blue Byte Backstage."
This time, they discuss the Science System being deployed on June 13th:

For more details, check out the Science System dev diary over in our official forums or even play it in advance on our public test server.

See you in-game,

~BB_Effiluna

Ubisoft Community Manager

Greetings Settlers,

Next week, the new Science System will be hitting our servers! Here are some things to look forward to:

• 7 brand new buildings, new production chains and 9 new resources.
• A skill tree for geologists (with 20 different skills!).
• The ability to specialize each of your geologists individually.
• A few tutorial quests and help windows to help guide you on your path.
• The ability to assign unique names to each of your specialists.

For more details, visit the Science System Developer’s Diary over in our official forums.

See you in-game,

~BB_Effiluna

Ubisoft Community Manager

Greetings Settlers,

Have you voted in the Guild Market election yet? For the first time, the worldwide community of The Settlers Online: Castle Empire has the ability to select one of the items that will be included in the upcoming Guild Market update. It is up to YOU to vote to help decide which item will be included!

In order to vote in the Guild Market election, you must click on the pop-up that appears in front of your news feed when you first log in. It looks like this:

Clicking on the pop-up will take you to a survey that will allow you to vote on the Guild Market item you would like to have included in the upcoming Guild Market update.

Click here for more information on the Guild Market election!

This election will only be running through Sunday, June 9th so cast your vote today!

See you in-game,

~BB_Effiluna

Ubisoft Community Manager

This week's winner is KingDonk5! We love the global theme as well as the nod to various community events!

Click here to see the full pic, as well as share your own!

See you in-game,

~BB_Effiluna

Ubisoft Community Manager

Greetings Settlers,

Today, we are excited to share with you a brand new update from Blue Byte on the following 3 topics:

• The community Guild Market voting (which starts TODAY at 11:00 AM EDT / 8:00 AM PDT)
• New, rare buffs for active players
• New details about the upcoming free gem increase and the distribution of the free gem adjustment package

Click here to read this new dev diary!

See you in-game,

~BB_Effiluna

Ubisoft Community Manager

Greetings Settlers,

Have you visited our newly updated Official Guide List? Compiled by our very own BB_xMISTY, these guides are meant to help players who would like advice on everything from combat to building placement.

Today, we would like to highlight the brand new Beginner Guide compiled by BB_Katealyst and BB_xMISTY available for download.

Click here to download the Beginner Guide!

We hope this updated guide helps new players understand the various game features available and assists in understanding beginning gameplay mechanics.

See you in-game,

~BB_Effiluna

Ubisoft Community Manager

This week's winner is SerkanT, with his beautifully organized mayoral landscape!

Click here to see the full pic, as well as share your own!

See you in-game,

~BB_Effiluna

Ubisoft Community Manager

Dear Settlers,

Due to the success of your support during testing, the first part of the new Science System feature (including the skill tree for your Geologists!) will go live very soon. Here's your chance to get a new special item that will boost the start to your Science System:

• Name: Bookbinding Glue
• Effect: Increases the production speed of the Bookbinder to 200% for 24 hours
• Usage: You can use it on your home zone; it is tradable

These special buffs are rare.
This is the only chance to get them so far.

How do I get these items? - Be active!

• Play the game between Monday, May 27th and Monday, June 10th.
• On June 14th, an in-game message will be sent that will contain THREE bookbinder glue to all players who meet this criteria.

Click here for more details!

See you in-game,

~BB_Effiluna

Ubisoft Community Manager

Greetings Settlers,

The new Science System needs your help for finalization! It looks good so far, but we would like to check it under high load when lots of players are online. If the user load test results are fine, we’re confident that the next live version update may include the new science system buildings and the first skill tree!

Test details:

• Test 1: Friday, 24th of May, 5:00 AM - 7:00 AM EDT / 2:00 AM - 4:00 AM PDT
• Test 2: Friday, 24th of May, 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM EDT / 7:00 AM - 9:00 AM PDT
• Place: TSO Test Server

Go and play like crazy!

Please note: This content is still being tested and is not finalized.

See you in-game,

~BB_Effiluna

Ubisoft Community Manager

This week's winner is Aquila, with her collection of gem pits! Double the gems, double the fun!

Click here to see the full pic, as well as share your own!

See you in-game,

~BB_Effiluna

Ubisoft Community Manager

Have you entered our pro-tip contest? Contribute your Settlers knowledge to our Pro Tip Event and enter for a chance to win some free gems! 25 random winners will get 250 Gems each!

Click here to participate in our Pro Tip Event!

See you in game,

~BB_Effiluna

Ubisoft Community Manager

Did you know the first part of the upcoming Science System update is already on the test server? Help us test this exciting new content update!

Click here to log in to the test server!

Please note: This content is still being tested and is not finalized.

See you in-game,

~BB_Effiluna

Ubisoft Community Manager

Dear Settlers,

Blue Byte has sent us a new Developer Diary in order to answer some questions and release some brand new information.

In this Diary, we talk about:

• PvP
• Guild quest resets
• Upcoming free gem increases and more!

Check out the Developer Diary here!

See you in-game,

~BB_Effiluna

Ubisoft Community Manager

Are you bursting with Settlers knowledge to share with your peers? Contribute your pro tips to our new Pro Tip Event and enter for a chance to win some free gems!

Click here to participate in our new Pro Tip Event!

See you in game,

~BB_Effiluna

Ubisoft Community Manager