Thirty-two full expansions for the MMORPG EverQuest have been released. Initially, expansions were shipped in boxes to stores, but were later put for sale on digital marketplaces. The retail versions often come packaged with a bonus feature such as a creature that the player can put in their in-game house.
Expansion packs The Ruins of Kunark
The first expansion pack for EverQuest was The Ruins of Kunark, released on April 24, 2000. It introduced the continent of Kunark to the game, which had been previously unexplored. The storyline of the discovery of Kunark was established through in-game events and fiction published on the web by Verant Interactive.
In the United States, The Ruins of Kunark sold 92,172 units between February 2001 through the first week of November. Desslock of GameSpot reported that the game and The Scars of Velious "sold well early in the year, but sales evaporated during the course of the summer, especially after the release of Camelot".
During the 4th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences awarded The Ruins of Kunark with the "Massive Multiplayer/Persistent World" award, and received nominations for "PC Game of the Year" and "Game of the Year".
The Scars of Velious
The Scars of Velious was released on December 5, 2000. The expansion is directed toward characters which have achieved high experience levels (levels 35 and up), providing additional powerful monsters to fight and a number of zones meant to be used by large groups of players.
The expansion takes place on the antarctic continent of Velious. The title refers to three chasms in Velious which are said to be the claw-marks of the great dragon Veeshan. One of these claw-marks is in a region known as The Great Divide, where the Coldain have established their home in the mountainside. The expansion introduced both Frost giants and Coldain dwarves to the EverQuest universe, and a group of dragons known as the Claws of Veeshan. Players could ally their characters with any of the three factions, and fight against the others to gain rewards exclusive to their chosen faction.
The expansion is also notable for introducing the Sleeper's Tomb zone, which could unlock with a key from a quest, and vanquish the four dragons that guarded a creature known as The Sleeper. The completion of this zone by the first few players led to the first world changing event, where The Sleeper would awaken and rampage his way through Norrath. Scars of Velious also reintroduced Ethereal Planes such as the Plane of Growth, home of Tunare (goddess of nature) and the Plane of Mischief. Those planes, just like the original Planes (Hate, Fear and Sky) required players to have reached the level of 46 in order to enter. Plane of Growth also reintroduced the notion of Planar armor, providing a full set for most classes except druids, paladins, and rangers who went into a new second floor of the Plane of Hate.
In the United States, The Scars of Velious sold 66,496 units from February 2001 through the first week of November.
The Scars of Velious holds an 85% rating on GameRankings.
The Shadows of Luclin
The third expansion pack, The Shadows of Luclin, was released on December 4, 2001, a year after the second. The expansion focuses on high-level content; it provides a number of zones meant to be used by large groups of players and a number of extremely powerful monsters to fight.
The expansion takes place on a moon of Norrath called Luclin and introduces the Vah Shir, a playable catlike race, and the Beastlord character class. Notable NPC races that were added to the EverQuest universe are the Shissar, a snake-like race, and the Akhevans. The Shadows of Luclin also incorporates a new game engine, new character models and gives players the ability to design graphic user interfaces. The appearance of the player's character was completely redesigned, giving them more layers and rounder shapes. Mounts were also introduced with this expansion – they allow players to regenerate their Health and Mana without generating as much aggro (hatred from monsters). Alternate Advancement started with the Luclin expansion which allows players to further grow and customize their classes.
The game includes many zones in which players of all levels can experience, several raid encounters such as the Lord Inquisitor Seru, and a high-end raiding zone, Vex Thal. SoL also introduced some new events that made some encounters more challenging than before, especially in the Ssraeshza Temple zone.
The Shissars (serpent-like creatures) were extremely powerful beings who once roamed the continent of Kunark where they had enslaved the Iksars. Rile, an Iksar hero, started a revolution and called upon a mystical force referred to as the Greenmist, who then killed the Shissars. Fleeing Norrath because the atmosphere became toxic, the surviving Shissars were helped by the Combine Empire and were sent to Luclin and the underwater sanctuary introduced years later with "The Buried Sea".
On Luclin, the Shissars built the temple of Ssraeshza - home of the powerful Emperor Ssraeshza (powerful enough to slay gods according to game lore). To protect themselves from the Greenmist, the Shissars magically sealed the Grey, a place where no atmosphere exists, and built their temple. Ssraeshza Temple (also known as Ssra) is part of the access to the high-end zone of Vex Thal. Defeating the Emperor required completion of a key "quest" inside the zone, requiring the player(s) to track down, kill, and collect many other items, as well as collecting special weapons which did special damage to the emperor; The Emperor is immune to regular weapons, making the special weapons necessary for his death. Such weapons were introduced with SoL and are referred to as Bane Weapons. Later on, a Shadow Knight only quested weapon was introduced in Cabilis and called the Greenmist (Sacred Khukri of Rile), the most powerful Shissar-bane weapon.
In the United States, The Shadows of Luclin sold 360,000 copies ($9.9 million) by August 2006, after its release in December 2001. It was the country's 46th best-selling computer game between January 2000 and August 2006. Combined sales of all EverQuest computer games released between January 2000 and August 2006 had reached 2.7 million units in the United States by the latter date.
The Shadows of Luclin holds an 86% rating on GameRankings.
The Planes of Power
The fourth expansion, The Planes of Power, was released on October 29, 2002. The expansion comprises an assortment of otherworldly planes that do not exist in a planetary sense within the EverQuest universe.
The expansion added content to the game aimed specifically toward the high-end player. In addition to adding new zones to the game, the expansion also introduced a network of portal points through the game realm. Players could use them to quickly travel to and from various regions through a central plane, known as Plane of Knowledge.
The primary goal, or end-quest, of The Planes of Power is access to the Plane of Time. Access to this plane can only be obtained through vanquishing the four elemental deities or avatars of such: Fennin Ro, The Rathe Council, Coirnav and Xegony. To gain access to all of the zones of the expansion and successfully enter the Plane of Time, the players needed to complete 28 flag events of all sorts, involving the death of planar deities and deific creatures. These encounters can only be completed with the organized effort of up to 72 players working together simultaneously.
The maximum level was increased from 60 to 65 with this expansion and new Particle Weapons were added, when before only epic weapons had such visual effects. In order to enter the expansion's basic zones, a player had to reach the former set planar level of 46. From there, one had to complete tasks to gain access to the more advanced zones. It was later changed so that once the character reached level 55, they gained access to two more zones which are the Plane of Valor and the Plane of Storms. At 62 the Bastion of Thunder then became available. Those level limits can be bypassed by completing the progression of the expansion, allowing for example to be level 46 while adventuring in the Bastion of Thunder.
The Planes of Power holds an 83% rating on GameRankings.
The Planes of Power was a nominee for PC Gamer USs "2002 Best Expansion Pack" award, which ultimately went to Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Island Thunder and Desert Siege (tie).
The Legacy of Ykesha
The Legacy of Ykesha was released 5 months after the fourth expansion, the shortest gap yet at the time. Promoted by Sony Online as EverQuest'''s "first download-only extension", it was the first EverQuest content expansion available almost exclusively from Sony Online's direct purchase and download service. Due to overwhelming demand, a limited number of CDs were made available to retailers after the product release date. Ykesha was released in February 2003 and was considered a minor content addition at the time. Over time, Ykesha's "extension" designation was lost, and the product is now referred to as a full-fledged EverQuest expansion.The Legacy of Ykesha introduced the froglok (the frog-like humanoid race present since the original EverQuest was released) as a playable race. To do this, Sony Online Entertainment introduced a storyline whereby the frogloks invaded the Troll city of Grobb and reclaimed and renamed it Gukta. The trolls were sent fleeing to the city of Neriak. Another part of the storyline introduced the Broken Skull Clan of the trolls, which had a rivalry with the Grobb trolls, and live on the island of Broken Skull Rock just off the south coast of Antonica. This is where the new zones of the expansion are located.
Other enhancements of the expansion included dyeable armor, an increase in the number of bank slots available for characters, a new guild management system, a new armor slot called 'Charms', and a new overhead mapping system which allowed players to customize maps. The zones were intended for mid-level adventurers between levels 36-60 and were generally received as very uninspired and added little to the lore of Norrath, but the guild management, extra bank slots, trading between characters utility and mapping tools are considered vital, and dyeing of armor is popular.Computer Gaming Worlds Jeff Green gave the expansion a rating of 2½ out of 5 and was critical that the expansion did not add new ideas, other than the ability to play as froglok.
Lost Dungeons of NorrathLost Dungeons of Norrath was the sixth expansion, released on September 9, 2003. It was made available as a digital download that month, but purchasers of the retail box version were rewarded with an in-game item (a magic bag), starting Sony's trend to include in-game items as incentive to purchase retail copies of their expansions.Lost Dungeons of Norrath introduced broad-based instanced dungeons to Norrath, revolving around tales of the Wayfarers - an NPC adventuring organization. Players complete adventures for the Wayfarers in one of five different dungeon themes. Each dungeon theme has about ten different variations of the zone, and players can also choose the type and difficulty of their adventure. When the adventure is finished successfully, players are awarded Adventure Points which can be spent on items, spells, and 'augments' at the Wayfarer camps.